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THE LETTERS TO THE
SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA
THE LETTERS TO THE
SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA
AND THEIR PLACE IN THE PLAN OF
THE APOCALYPSE
W. M. RAMSAY, D.C.L., Litt.D., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF HUMANITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
HODDER & STOUGHTON
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PREFACE.
In the contact of East and West originates the
movement of history. The historical position of
Christianity cannot be rightly understood except in
its relation to that immemorial meeting and conflict.
The present book is based on the view that Christi-
anity is the religion which associates East and West
in a higher range of thought than either can reach
alone, and tends to substitute a peaceful union for the
war into which the essential difference of Asiatic and
European character too often leads the two continents.
So profound is the difference, that in their meeting
either war must result, or each of them must modify
itself. There is no power except religion strong
enough to modify both sufficiently to make a peace-
ful union possible ; and there is no religion but
Christianity which is wholly penetrated both with
the European and with the Asiatic spirit — so pene-
trated that many are sensitive only to one or the
other.
vi Preface
Only a divine origin is competent to explain the
perfect union of Eastern and Western thought in
this religion. It adapted itself in the earliest stages
of its growth to the great Graeco-Aslatic cities with
their mixed population and social system, to Rome,
not as the Latin city, but as the capital of the Greek-
speaking world, and to Corinth as the halting-place
between Greek Asia and its capital. Several chapters
of the present book are devoted to an account of
the motley peoples and manners of those cities. The
adaptation of Christianity to the double nationality
can be best seen in the Apocalypse, because there
the two elements which unite in Christianity are
less perfectly reconciled than in any other book of
the New Testament. The Judaic element in the
Apocalypse has been hitherto studied to the entire
neglect of the Greek element in it. Hence it has
been the most misunderstood book in the New
Testament.
The collision of East and West throughout history
has been a subject of special interest to the present
writer from early youth ; and he has watched for
more than twenty-five years the recent revival of
the Asiatic spirit, often from a very close point of
view. In 1897, i" ^ book entitled Impressions of
Preface vii
Turkey^ he tried to analyse and describe, as he had
seen it, " the great historic movement " through which
" Mohammedanism and Orientalism have gathered
fresh strength to defy the feeling of Europe". It
is now becoming plain to all that the relation of
Asia to Europe is in process of being profoundly
changed ; and very soon this will be a matter of
general discussion. The long-unquestioned domin-
ation of European over Asiatic is now being put to
the test, and is probably coming to an end. What
is to be the issue? That depends entirely on the
influence of Christianity, and on the degree to which
it has affected the aims both of Christian and of
non-Christian nations : there are cases in which it
has affected the latter almost more than the former.
The ignorant European fancies that progress for the
East lies in Europeanising it. The ordinary traveller
in the East can tell that it is as impossible to Euro-
peanise the Asiatic as it is to make an Asiatic out
of a European ; but he has not learned that there
is a higher plane on which Asia and Europe may
"mix and meet". That plane was once in an im-
perfect degree reached in the Grseco-Asiatic cities,
whose creative influence in the formation of Roman
and modern society is beginning to be recognised by
vm Preface
some of the latest historical students ; and the new
stage towards which Christianity is moving, and in
which it will be better understood than it has been
by purely European thought, will be a synthesis of
European and Asiatic nature and ideas.
This book is a very imperfect essay towards the
understanding of that synthesis, which now lies before
us as a possibility of the immediate future. How
imperfect it is has become clearer to the writer, as in
the writing of it he came to comprehend better the
nature of the Apocalypse.
The illustrations are intended to be steps in the
argument. The Apocalypse reads the history and
the fate of the Churches in the natural features, the
relations of earth and sea, winds and mountains, which
affected the cities ; this study distinguishes some of
those influences ; and the Plates furnish the evidence
that the natural features are not misapprehended in
the study.
The Figures in the text are intended as examples
of the symbolism that was in ordinary use in the
Greek world ; the Apocalypse is penetrated with this
way of expressing thought to the eye ; and its sym-
bolic language is not to be explained from Jewish
models only (as is frequently done). It was written
Preface ix
to be understood by the Grseco- Asiatic public ; and
the Figures prove that it was natural and easy for
those readers to understand the symbolism. Most
of the subjects are taken from coins of the Imperial
period ; and hearty thanks are due to Mr. Head of
the British Museum for casts from originals under
his care. If the style of the coins were the subject of
study, photographic reproductions would be required.
But what we are here interested in is the method of
expressing ideas by visible forms ; and line drawings,
which bring out the essential facts, are more useful
for our purpose. Examples are very numerous, and
this small selection gives rather the first than the
best that might be chosen.
Thanks are due to Miss A. Margaret Ramsay
for drawing twenty-two of the Figures, to MIs3
Mary Ramsay for two, and to Mr. John Hay for
twelve.
In several cases it is pointed out that the spirit
which is revealed in the natural features of the city
was recognised in ancient times, being expressed by
orators in counselling or flattering the citizens, and
becoming a commonplace in popular talk. It is right
to point out that in every case the impressions, gained
first of all immediately from the scenery, were after-
X Preface
wards detected in the ancient writers (who usually
express them in obscure and elaborately rhetorical
style).
The writing of a series of geographical articles
in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible greatly
facilitated the preparation of the present book, though
the writer has learned much since, often as a result
of the study required for those articles.
It has not been part of the writer's purpose to
describe the Seven Cities as they are at the present
day. That was done in a series of articles by Mrs.
Ramsay in the British Monthly, November, 1901,
to May, 1902, better than he could do it. He has
in several places used ideas and illustrations expressed
in the articles, and some of the photographs which
ware used in them are here reproduced afresh.
W. M. RAMSAY.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAQB
Writing, Travel, and Letters among the Early
Christians
CHAPTER n.
Transmission of Letters in the First Century , 15
CHAPTER HI.
The Christian Letters and Their Transmission , 23
CHAPTER IV.
The Letters to the Seven Churches • • • 35
CHAPTER V.
Relation of the Christian Books to Contemporary
Thought and Literature 50
xii Contents
CHAPTER VI.
PAGB
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters • # . 57
CHAPTER vn.
Authority of the Writer of the Seven Letters . 74
CHAPTER vni.
The Education of St. John in Patmos , • • 82
CHAPTER IX.
The Flavian Persecution in the Province of Asia
AS Depicted in the Apocalypse • t i t 93
CHAPTER X.
The Province of Asia and the Imperial Religion . 114
CHAPTER XI.
The Cities of Asia as Meeting-places of the
Greek and the Asiatic Spirit • • • • 128
CHAPTER XII,
The Jev^^s in the Asian Cities , . , , , 142
Contents xiii
CHAPTER XIII.
PAGE
The Pagan Converts in the Early Church . , 158
CHAPTER XIV.
The Seven Churches of Asia . . • . •171
CHAPTER XV.
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities . , 185
CHAPTER XVI.
Plan and Order of Topics in the Seven Letters . 197
CHAPTER XVII.
Ephesus : the City of Change • , , • , 210
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus . , , ajy
CHAPTER XIX.
Smyrna : the City of Life . , , • • • »5i
xiv Contents
CHAPTER XX.
PAOB
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna , , , a68
CHAPTER XXI.
Pergamum : the Royal City : the City of Authority 281
CHAPTER XXn.
The Letter to the Church in Psrgamum , . 291
CHAPTER XXni.
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong .... 316
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira, , , 327
CHAPTER XXV.
Sardis: the City of Death • • • • , 354
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Letter to the Church in Sardis , , , 369
Contents xv
CHAPTER XXVII.
PAGE
Philadelphia: the Missionary City . , , , 391
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia . , 401
CHAPTER XXIX.
Laodicea: the City of Compromise .... 413
CHAPTER XXX.
The Letter to the Church in Laodicea. . . 424
CHAPTER XXXI.
Epilogue •••*••.•, 431
Notes . • • • 435
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Map of the Province Asia
to face p.
PLATES.
I. Ephesus. — FnoM Seats of Great Thka.re
II. Ephesus. — Stadium and Hill of St. John
III. Temple, Mosque and Hill of St. John .
IV. The Crown of Smyrna. — Seen from the North
V. Smyrna. — Trade Route Entering the City
VI. Pergamum. — North Face of the Hill
VII. Pergamum. — From the South . . ,
VIII. Thyatira. — From the West
IX. Thyatira. — Turkish Cemetery on Acropolis
X. Sardis. — From the North ....
XI. Sardis. — From the Pactolus Glen (West)
XII. Philadelphia. — From the Plain . , .
XIU. Outside of Philadelphia ....
XIV. Laodicka. — Asopus Valley outside Ephesian
Gate
XV. Laodicea. — The Ephesian Gate .
XVI. Laodicea. — From the North : Hierapolitan
Gate
I., III., photographs by Mr. D. G. Hogarth ; II. {v. title) ; IV.
by Rubellin, Smyrna; V., by Rev. J. Murray, Smyrna; Vil.-IX
by Mrs. Ra.-nsay.
to face
P- 213
1*
214
»
2l5
•1
254
•>
266
II
282
..
295
)i
3i3
..
332
.<
355
..
356
..
306
•1
407
II
413
II
414
„
416
VI., X
.-XII.,
,XIII.
-XVL,
xvili Illustrations
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
FAOB
1. The Ideal Parthian King 59
2. The Parthian King Welcomed Home (42-65 a.d.) . , 60
3. Parthian Captives under Roman Trophy (116 a.d.) , , 6i
4. The Sacrifice on Earth and in Heaven (100 a.d.) • . 63
5. DoMiTiAN the Persecutor .....•• 92
6. The Goddess Rising out of the Earth • • . • 104
7. Temple of Augustus at Pergamum . • . . . 124
8. Ephesus and Sardis Represented by Their Goddesses . 125
9. Sardis First Metropolis of Asia, Lydia, Hellenism . . 139
10. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, " First of Asia " . • • 174
11. Conjectural Map of Gulf of Ephesus « • • i aia
12. Coin of Anatolian Ephesus •••••«• 220
13. Coin of Hellenic Ephesus ••••••• 221
14. Coin of Ephesus as Arsinoe ..••••• 226
15. Ephesus th ^ First Landing-Placb 228
16. The Sea-borne Trade op Ephesus • • • • • 229
17. Altar of Augustus at Ephesus #••••• 231
18. The Four Temple-Wardenships •#••*. 232
19. The Goddess of Smyrna 259
20. The River-God Meles . . • 263
21. The Twin-Goddesses Nemesis 265
22. The Alliance of Smyrna and Thyatira . . . • 266
23. Caracalla Adoring the God-Serpent of Pergamum . # 285
24. Obverse of Cistophorus (Serpent and Cista Mystica) . 288
25. Reverse op Cistophorus (Serpents and Bowcase) . . 289
26. The Hero op Thyatira 318
27. Caracalla Adoring the God ov Thyatira • • • • 319
Illustrations
XIX
38. The Emperor and the God Supporting the Games
29. The Thyatiran Bronze-Smith . . • .
30. The Alliance of Ephesus and Sardis . . •
31. CESAREAN Sardis Suppliant to the Emperor .
32. The Empress as the Patron-Goddess of Sardis
33. The Alliance of Philadelphia and Ephesus •
34. The Sun-God of Philadelphia • • • •
35. The God of Laodicea
36. The Alliance of Smyrna and Laodicea . •
PAGE
321
325
364
366
367
393
394
418
423
ii 2, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17, 24-6, 33, 35 were drawn by Mr, John Hay; 4, 23 by
Miss Mary Ramsay ; the rest by Miss A. Margaret Ramsay ; 6 is taken from
Archdologische Zeitting, 1853, 4 from sketches of the original by Mrs. Ram-
say, and II is altered from Professor BenndorPs map ; the rest are from coins.
CHAPTER I.
WRITING, TRAVEL, AND LETTERS AMONG THE EARLY
CHRISTIANS.
Many writers on many occasions have perceived and
described the important part which intercommunication
between the widely separated congregations of early Chris-
tians, whether by travel or by letter, played in determining
the organisation and cementing the unity of the Universal
Church.^ Yet perhaps all has not been said that ought to
be said on the subject. The marvellous skill and mastery,
with which all the resources of the existing civilisation were
turned to their own purposes by St. Paul and by the
Christians generally, may well detain our attention for a
brief space.
Travelling and correspondence by letter are mutually de-
pendent. Letters are unnecessary until travelling begins :
much of the usefulness and profit of travelling depends on
the possibility of communication between those who are
separated from one another. Except in the simplest forms,
commerce and negotiation between different nations, which
are among the chief incentives to travelling in early times,
cannot be carried out without some method of registering
thoughts and information, so as to be understood by persons
at a distance.
Hence communication by letter has been commonly
practised from an extremely remote antiquity. The know-
I
I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
ledge of and readiness in writing leads to correspondence
between friends who are not within speaking distance of
one another, as inevitably as the possession of articulate
speech produces conversation and discussion. In order to
fix the period when epistolary correspondence first began,
it would be necessary to discover at what period the art
of writing became common. Now the progress of discovery
in recent years has revolutionised opinion on this subject.
The old views, which we all used to assume as self-evident,
that writing was invented at a comparatively late period in
human history, that it was long known only to a few persons,
and that it was practised even by them only slowly and with
difficulty on some special occasions and for some peculiarly
important purposes, are found to be utterly erroneous. No
one who possesses any knowledge of early history would
now venture to make any positive assertion as to the date
when writing was invented, or when it began to be widely
used in the Mediterranean lands. The progress of discovery
reveals the existence of various systems of writing at a re-
mote period, and shows that they were familiarly used for
the ordinary purposes of life and administration, and were
not reserved, as scholars used to believe, for certain sacred
purposes of religion and ritual.
The discovery that writing was familiarly used in early
time has an important bearing on the early literature of the
Mediterranean peoples. For example, no scholar would
now employ the argument that the composition of the
Iliad and the Odyssey must belong to a comparatively
late day, because such great continuous poems could not
come into existence without the ready use of writing — an
argument which formerly seemed to tell strongly against
the early date assigned by tradition for their origin. The
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Among the Early Christians
scholars who championed the traditional date of those great
works used to answer that argument by attempting to
prove that they were composed and preserved by memory
alone without the aid of writing. The attempt could not
be successful. The scholar in his study, accustomed to deal
with words and not with realities, might persuade himself
that by this ingenious verbal reasoning he had got rid of
the difficulty; but those who could not blind themselves to
the facts of the world felt that the improbability still re-
mained, and acquiesced in this reasoning only as the least
among a choice of evils. The progress of discovery has
placed the problem in an entirely new light. The difficulty
originated in our ignorance. The art of writing was indeed
required as an element in the complex social platform on
which the Homeric poems were built up ; but no doubt can
now be entertained that writing was known and familiarly
practised in the East Mediterranean lands long before the
date to which Greek tradition assigned the composition of
the two great poems,
A similar argument was formerly used by older scholars
to prove that the Hebrew literature belonged to a later
period than the Hebrew tradition allowed; but the more
recent scholars who advocate the late date of that liter-
ature would no longer allow such reasoning, and frankly
admit that their views must be supported on other grounds ;
though it may be doubted whether they have abandoned
as thoroughly as they profess the old prejudice in favour
of a late date for any long literary composition, or have
fully realised how readily and familiarly writing was used
in extremely remote time, together with all that is implied
by that familiar use. The prejudice still exists, and it
affects the study of both Hebrew and Christian literature.
I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
In the first place, there is a general feeling that it is more
prudent to bring down the composition of any ancient work
to the latest date that evidence permits. But this feeling
rests ultimately on the fixed idea that people have gradu-
ally become more familiar with the art of writing as the
world grows older, and that the composition of a work of
literature should not, without distinct and conclusive proof,
be attributed to an early period.
In the second place, there is also a very strong body of
opinion that the earliest Christians wrote little or nothing.
It is supposed that partly they were either unable to write,
or at least unused to the familiar employment of writing for
the purposes of ordinary life; partly they were so entirely
taken up with the idea of the immediate coming of the
Lord that they never thought it necessary to record for
future generations the circumstances of the life and death of
Jesus, until lapse of long years on the one hand had shown
that the Lord's coming was not to be expected immediately,
and that for the use of the already large Church some record
was required of those events round which its faith and hope
centred, while on the other hand it had obscured the memory
and disturbed the true tradition of those important facts.
This opinion also rests on and derives all its influence from
the same inveterate prejudice that, at the period in question,
writing was still something great and solemn, and that it
was used, not in the ordinary course of human everyday life
and experience, but only for some grave purpose of legisla-
tion, government, or religion, intentionally registering certain
weighty principles or important events for the benefit of
future generations. Put aside that prejudice, and the whole
body of opinion which maintains that the Christians at first
did not set anything down in writing about the life and
Among the Early Christians
death of Christ — strong and widely accepted as it is, dom-
inating as a fundamental premise much of the discussion of
this whole subject in recent times — is devoid of any support.
But most discussions with regard to the origin, force, and
spirit of the New Testament are founded on certain postu-
lates and certain initial presumptions, which already contain
implicit the whole train of reasoning that follows, and
which in fact beg the whole question at starting. If those
postulates are true, or if they are granted by the reader,
then the whole series of conclusions follows with unerring
and impressive logical sequence. All the more necessary,
then, is it to examine very carefully the character of such
postulates, and to test whether they are really true about
that distant period, or are only modern fallacies springing
from the mistaken views about ancient history that were
widely accepted in the eighteenth and most part of the
nineteenth century.
One of those initial presumptions, plausible in appearance
and almost universally assumed and conceded, is that there
was no early registration of the great events in the begin-
ning of Christian history. This presumption we must set
aside as a mere prejudice, contrary to the whole character
and spirit of that age, and entirely improbable; though, of
course, decisive disproof of it is no longer possible, for the
only definite and complete disproof would be the production
of the original documents in which the facts were recorded
at the moment by contemporaries. But so much may be
said at once, summing up in a sentence the result which
arises from what is stated in the following pages. So far
as antecedent probability goes, founded on the general
character of preceding and contemporary Greek or Grseco-
Asiatic society, the first Christian account of the circum-
I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
stances connected with the death of Jesus must be presumed
to have been written in the year when Jesus died.
But the objection will doubtless be made at once — If that
be so, how can you account for such facts as that Mark says
that the Crucifixion was completed by the third hour of the
day (9 A.M., according to our modern reckoning of time),
while John says that the sentence upon Jesus was only
pronounced about the sixth hour, i.e. at noon. The reply
is obvious and unhesitating. The difference dates from
the event itself. Had evidence been collected that night
or next morning, the two diverse opinions would have
been observed and recorded, already hopelessly discrepant
and contradictory.
One was the opinion of the ordinary people of that
period, unaccustomed to note the lapse of time or to define
it accurately in thought or speech : such persons loosely
indicated the temporal sequence of three great events, the
Crucifixion, the beginning and the end of the darkness, by
assigning them to the three great successive divisions of the
day — the only divisions which they were in the habit of
noticing or mentioning — the third, sixth, and ninth hours.
Ordinary witnesses in that age would have been non-
plussed, if they had been closely questioned whether full
three hours had elapsed between the Crucifixion and the
beginning of the darkness, and would have regarded such
minuteness as unnecessary pedantry, for they had never
been trained by the circumstances of life to accuracy of
thought or language in regard to the lapse of time.
Witnesses of that class are the authority for the account
which is preserved in the three Synoptic Gospels. We
observe that throughout the Gospels of Mark and Luke
only the three great divisions of the day — the third, sixth
Among the Early Christians
and ninth hours — are mentioned. Matthew once mentions
the eleventh hour, xx. 9; but there his expression does not
show superior accuracy in observation, for he is merely
using a proverbial expression to indicate that the allotted
season had almost elapsed. A very precise record of time
is contained in the Bezan Text of Acts xix. 9; "from the
fifth to the tenth hour"; but this is found only in two
MSS., and is out of keeping with Luke's ordinary looseness
in respect of time and chronology ;2 and it must therefore
be regarded as an addition made by a second century
editor, who either had access to a correct source of informa-
tion, or explained the text in accordance with the regular
customs of Grseco-Roman society.
The other statement, which is contained in the Fourth
Gospel, records the memory of an exceptional man, who
through a certain idiosyncrasy was observant and careful in
regard to the lapse of time, who in other cases noted and
recorded accurate divisions of time like the seventh hour
and the tenth hour (John i. 39, iv. 6, iv. 52). This man,
present at the trial of Jesus, had observed the passage of
time, which was unnoticed by others. The others would
have been astonished if any one had pointed out that noon
had almost come before the trial was finished. He alone
marked the sun and estimated the time, with the same
accuracy as made him see and remember that the two
disciples came to the house of Jesus about the tenth hour,
that Jesus sat on the well about the sixth hour, that the
fever was said to have left the child about the seventh
hour. All those little details, entirely unimportant in
themselves, were remembered by a man naturally obser-
vant of time, and recorded for no other reason than that
he had been present and had seen or heard.
8 I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
It is a common error to leave too much out of count the
change that has been produced on popular thought and
accuracy of conception and expression by the habitual
observation of the lapse of time according to hours and
minutes. The ancients had no means of observing pre-
cisely the progress of time. They could as a rule only
make a rough guess as to the hour. There was not even
a name for any shorter division of time than the hour.
There were no watches, and only in the rarest and most
exceptional cases were there any public and generally
accessible instruments for noting and making visible the
lapse of time during the day. The sun-dial was necessarily
an inconvenient recorder, not easy to observe. Conse-
quently looseness in regard to the passage of time is deep-
seated in ancient thought and literature, especially Greek.
The Romans, with their superior endowment for practical
facts and ordinary statistics, were more careful, and the
effect can be traced in their literature. The lapse of time
hour by hour was often noted publicly in great Roman
households by the sound of a trumpet or some other device,
though the public still regarded this as a rather over-
strained refinement — for why should one be anxious to
know how fast one's life was ebbing away? Such was
the usual point of view, as is evident in Petronius § 26.
Occasionally individuals in the Greek-speaking provinces
of the East were more accurate in the observation of time,
either owing to their natural temperament, or because they
were more receptive of the Roman habit of accuracy. On
the other hand, the progress of invention has made almost
every one in modern times as careful and accurate about
time as even the exceptionally accurate in ancient times,
because we are all trained from infancy to note the time by
Among the Early Christians
minutes, and we suffer loss or inconvenience occasionally
from an error in observation. The use of the trumpeter
after the Roman fashion to proclaim the lapse of time is
said to have been kept up until recently in the old imperial
city of Goslar, where, in accordance with the more minute
accuracy characteristic of modern thought and custom, he
sounded every quarter of an hour.
But it does not follow that, because the ancients were
not accustomed to note the progress of the hours, therefore
they were less habituated to use the art of writing. It is
a mere popular fallacy, entirely unworthy of scholars, to
suppose that people became gradually more familiar with
writing and more accustomed to use it habitually in ordinary
life as time progressed and history continued. The con-
trary is the case ; at a certain period, and to a certain degree,
,the ancients were accustomed to use the art familiarly and
readily ; but at a later time writing passed out of ordinary
use and became restricted to a few who used it only as a
lofty possession for great purposes.
It is worth while to mention one striking example to give
emphasis to the fact that, as the Roman Empire decayed,
familiarity with the use of writing disappeared from society,
until it became the almost exclusive possession of a few
persons, who were for the most part connected with religion.
About the beginning of the sixth century before Christ, a
body of mercenary soldiers, Greeks, Carians, etc., marched
far away up the Nile towards Ethiopia and the Sudan in
the service of an Egyptian king. Those hired soldiers of
fortune were likely, for the most part, to belong to the least
educated section of Greek society; and, even where they
had learned in childhood to write, the circumstances of their
life were not of a kind likely to make writing a familiar and
lo I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
ordinary matter to them, or to render its exercise a natural
method of whiling away an idle hour. Yet on the stones
and the colossal statues at Abu Simbel many of them
wrote, not merely their name and legal designation, but
also accounts of the expedition on which they were en-
gaged, with its objects and its progress.
Such was the state of education in a rather humble
stratum of Greek society six centuries before Christ. Let
us come down eleven centuries after Christ, to the time
when great armies of Crusaders were marching across
Asia Minor on their way to Palestine. Those armies were
led by the noblest of their peoples, by statesmen, warriors,
and great ecclesiastics. They contained among them per-
sons of all classes, burning with zeal for a great idea,
pilgrims at once and soldiers, with numerous priests and
monks. Yet, so far as I am aware, not one single written
memorial of all those crusading hosts has been found in
the whole country .^ On a rock beside the lofty castle of
Butrentum, commanding the approach to the great pass of
the Cilician Gates — that narrow gorge which they called
the Gate of Judas, because it was the enemy of their faith
and the betrayer of their cause — there are engraved many
memorials of their presence ; but none are written ; all are
mere marks in the form of crosses.
In that small body of mercenaries who passed by Abu
Simbel 600 years before Christ, there were probably more
persons accustomed to use familiarly the art of writing
than in all the hosts of the Crusaders; for, even to those
Crusaders who had learned to write, the art was far from
being familiar, and they were not wont to use it in their
ordinary everyday life, though they might on great occasions.
In those 1700 years the Mediterranean world had passed
Among the Early Christians ii
from light to darkness, from civilisation to barbarism, so far
as writing was concerned. Only recently are we beginning
to realise how civilised in some respects was mankind in
that earlier time, and to free ourselves from many unfounded
prejudices and prepossessions about the character of ancient
life and society.
The cumbrousness of the materials on which ancient
writing was inscribed may seem unfavourable to its easy or
general use. But it must be remembered that, except in
Egypt, no material that was not of the most durable char-
acter has been or could have been preserved. All writing-
materials more ephemeral than stone, bronze, or terra-cotta,
have inevitably been destroyed by natural causes. Only
in Egypt the extreme dryness of climate and soil has
enabled paper to survive. Now the question must suggest
itself whether there is any reason to think that more ephe-
meral materials for writing were never used by the ancient
Mediterranean peoples generally. Was Egypt the only
country in which writers used such perishable materials?
The question can be answered only in one way. There
can be no doubt that the custom, which obtained in the
Greek lands in the period best known to us, had come
down from remote antiquity: that custom was to make a
distinction between the material on which documents of
national interest and public character were written and that
on which mere private documents of personal or literary
interest were written. The former, such as laws, decrees
and other State documents, which were intended to be made
as widely known as possible, were engraved in one or two
copies on tablets of the most imperishable character and
preserved or exposed in some public place:* this was the
ancient way of attaining the publicity which in modern
12 I. Writing, Travel, and Letters
time is got by printing large numbers of copies on ephe-
meral material. But those public copies were not the only
ones made; there is no doubt that such documents were
first of all written on some perishable material, usually on
paper. In the case of private documents, as a rule, no
copies were made except on perishable materials.
Wills of private persons, indeed, are often found engraved
on marble or other lasting material ; these were exposed in
the most public manner^ over the graves that lined the
great highways leading out from the cities; but wills were
quasi-public documents in the classical period, and had been
entirely public documents at an earlier time, according to
their original character as records of a public act affecting
the community and acquiesced in by the whole body.
Similarly, it can hardly be doubted that, in a more an-
cient period of Greek society, documents which were only
of a private character and of personal or literary interest
were likely to be recorded on more perishable substances
than graver State documents. This view, of course, can
never be definitely and absolutely proved, for the only com-
plete proof would be the discovery of some of those old
private documents, which in the nature of the case have
decayed and disappeared. But the known facts leave no
practical room for doubt.
Paper was in full use in Egypt, as a finished and perfect
product, in the fourth millennium before Christ. In Greece
it is incidentally referred to by Herodotus as in ordinary
use during the fifth century B.C. At what date it began
to be used there no evidence exists ; but there is every
probability that it had been imported from Egypt for a
long time; and Herodotus says that, before paper came
into use on the Ionian coast, skins of animals were used for
Among the Early Christians 13
writing. On these and other perishable materials the,
letters and other commonplace documents of private persons
were written. Mr. Arthur J. Evans has found at Cnossos
in Crete "ink-written inscriptions on vases," as early as
1800 or 2000 years B.C. ; and he has inferred from this
"the existence of writings on papyrus or other perishable
materials" in that period, since ink would not be made
merely for writing on terra-cotta vases (though the custom
of writing in ink on pottery, especially on ostraka or frag-
ments of broken vases, as being cheap, persisted throughout
the whole period of ancient civilisation).
Accordingly, though few private letters older than the
imperial time have been preserved, it need not and should
not be supposed that there were only a few written. Those
that were written have been lost because the material on
which they were written could not last. If we except the
correspondence of Cicero, the great importance of which
caused it to be preserved, hardly any ancient letters not
intended for publication by their writers have come down
to us except in Egypt, where the original paper has in a
number of cases survived. But the voluminous correspon-
dence of Cicero cannot be regarded as a unique fact of
Roman life. He and his correspondents wrote so frequently
to one another, because letter-writing was then common in
Roman society. Cicero says that, when he was separated
from his friend Atticus, they exchanged their thoughts as
freely by letter as they did by conversation when they were
in the same place. Such a sentiment was not peculiar to
one individual : it expressed a custom of contemporary
society. The truth is that, just as in human nature thought
and speech are linked together in such a way that (to use
the expression of Plato in the Thecetetus) word is spoken
14 I. Writing, etc., among the Early Christians
thought and thought is unspoken word, so also human
beings seek by the law of their nature to express their ideas
permanently in writing as well as momentarily in speech;
and ignorance of writing in any race points rather to a
degraded and degenerate than to a truly primitive con-
dition.
CHAPTER II.
TRANSMISSION OF LETTERS IN THE FIRST CENTURY.
While writing springs from a natural feeling of the
human mind and must have originated at a very remote
period, and while letters must be almost as old as travelling,
the proper development of epistolary correspondence de-
pends on improvement in the method and the certainty of
transmission. The desire to write a letter grows weaker,
when it is uncertain whether the letter will reach its destina-
tion and whether others may open and read it. In the first
century this condition was fulfilled better than ever before.
It was then easier and safer to send letters than it had been
in earlier time. The civilised world, i.e. the Roman world,
was traversed constantly by messengers of government or
by the letter-carriers of the great financial and trading
companies. Commercial undertakings on such a vast scale
as the Roman needed frequent and regular communication
between the central offices in Rome and the agents in the
various provinces. There was no general postal service ;
but each trading company had its own staff of letter-carriers.
Private persons who had not letter-carriers of their own
were often able to send letters along with those business
communications.
In the early Roman Empire travelling, though not rapid,
was performed with an ease and certainty which were quite
remarkable. The provision for travelling by sea and by
land was made on a great scale. Travellers were going
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1 6 11. Transmission of Letters
about in great numbers, chiefly during the summer months,
occasionally even during the winter season. Their purposes
were varied, not merely commerce or government business,
but also education, curiosity, search for employment in
many departments of life. It is true that to judge from
some expressions used in Roman literature by men of letters
and moralists, travelling might seem not to have been
popular. Those writers occasionally speak as if travelling,
especially by sea, were confined to traders who risked their
life to make money, and as if the dangers were so great
that none but the reckless and greedy would incur them;
and the opinion is often expressed, especially by poets, that
to adventure oneself on the sea is an impious and unnatural
act. The well-known words of Horace's third Ode are
typical : —
Oak and brass of triple fold
Encompassed sure that heart, which first made bold
To the raging sea to trust
A fragile bark, nor feared the Afric gust :
Heaven's high providence in vain
Has severed countries with the estranging main,
If our vessels ne'ertheless
With reckless plunge that sacred bar transgress.'
But that point of view was traditional among the poets;
it had been handed down from the time when travelling
was much more dangerous and difficult, when ships were
small in size and fewer in numbers, when seamanship and
method were inferior, when few roads had been built, and
travel even by land was uncertain. Moreover, seafaring
and land travel were hostile to the contentment, discipline,
and quiet orderly spirit which Greek poetry and philosophy,
as a rule, loved to dwell on and to recommend : they tended
In the First Century 17
to encourage the spirit of self-confidence, self-assertiveness,
daring and rebellion against authority, which was called
by Euripides "the sailors' lawlessness" (Hectiba, 602). In
Roman literature the Greek models and the Greek senti-
ments were looked up to as sacred and final ; and those
words of the Roman writers were a proof of their bondage
to their Greek masters in thought.
When we look deeper, we find that very different views
were expressed by the writers who came more in contact
with the real facts of the Imperial world. They are full of
admiration of the Imperial peace and its fruits : the sea was
covered with ships interchanging the products of different
regions of the earth, wealth was vastly increased, comfort
and well-being improved, hill and valley covered with the
dwellings of a growing population : wars and pirates and
robbers had been put an end to, travel was free and safe,
all men could journey where they wished, the most remote
and lonely countries were opened up by roads and bridges.^
It is the simple truth that travelling, whether for business
or for pleasure, was contemplated and performed under the
Empire with an indifference, confidence, and, above all,
certainty, which were unknown in after centuries until the
introduction of steamers and the consequent increase in
ease and sureness of communication.
This ease and frequency of communication under the
Roman Empire was merely the culmination of a process
that had long been going on. Here, as in many other
departments of life, the Romans took up and improved
the heritage of Greece. Migration and intermixture of
peoples had been the natural law of the Greek world from
time immemorial ; and the process was immensely stimu-
lated in the fourth century B.C. by the conquests of Alex-
1 8 11. Transmission of Letters
ander the Great, which opened up the East and gave free
scope to adventure and trade. In the following centuries
there was abundant opportunity for travelling during the
fine season of the year. The powerful Monarchies and
States of the Greek world kept the sea safe; and during
the third century b.c, as has been said by Canon Hicks,
a scholar who has studied that period with special care,
"there must have been daily communication between Cos
(on the west of Asia Minor) and Alexandria" (in Egypt). ^
When the weakness of the Senatorial administration at
Rome allowed the pirates to increase and navigation to
become unsafe between 79 and 67 B.C., the life of the
civilised world was paralysed ; and the success of Pompey
in re-opening the sea was felt as the restoration of vitality
and civilisation, for civilised life was impossible so long as
the sea was an untraversable barrier between the countries
instead of a pathway to unite them.
Thus the deep-seated bent of human nature towards
letter-writing had been stimulated and cultivated by many
centuries of increasing opportunity, until it became a settled
habit and in some cases, as we see it in Cicero, almost a
passion.
The impression given by the early Christian writings is
in perfect agreement with the language of those writers who
spoke from actual contact with the life of the time, and did
not merely imitate older methods and utter afresh old senti-
ments. Probably the feature in those Christian writings,
which causes most surprise at first to the traveller familiar
with those countries in modern time, is the easy confidence
with which extensive plans of travel were formed and
announced and executed by the early Christians.
In Acts xvi. I ff . a journey by land and sea through parts
In the First Century 19
of Syria, Cilicia, a corner of Cappadocia, Lycaonia, Phrygia,
Mysia, the Troad, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece is de-
scribed, and no suggestion is made that this long journey
was anything unusual, except that the heightened tone of
the narrative in xvi. 7-9 corresponds to the perplexingly
rapid changes of scene and successive frustrations of St.
Paul's intentions. But those who are most intimately ac-
cjuainted with those countries know best how serious an
undertaking it would be at the present time to repeat that
journey, how many accidents might occur in it, and how
much care and thought would be advisable before one
entered on so extensive a programme.
Again, in xviii. 21 St. Paul touched at Ephesus in the
ordinary course of the pilgrim-ship which was conveying
him and many other Jews to Jerusalem for the Passover.
When he was asked to remain, he excused himself, but
promised to return as he came back from Jerusalem by a
long land-journey through Syria, Cilicia, Lycaonia, and
Phrygia. That extensive journey seems to be regarded by
speaker and hearers as quite an ordinary excursion. "I
must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem ;
but I will again return unto you, if God will." The last
condition is added, not as indicating uncertainty, but in
the usual spirit of Eastern religion, which forbids a resolve
about the future, however simple and easy, to be declared
without the express recognition of Divine approval — like
the Mohammedan "inshallah," which never fails when the
most ordinary resolution about the morrow is stated.
In Romans xv. 24, when writing from Corinth, St. Paul
sketches out a comprehensive plan. He is eager to see
Rome: first he must go to Jerusalem, but thereafter he is
bent on visiting Spain, and his course will naturally lead
20 II. Transmission of Letters
him through Rome, so that he will, without intruding him-
self on them, have the opportunity of seeing the Romans
and affecting their Church on his way.
Throughout mediaeval times nothing like this off-hand
way of sketching out extensive plans was natural or intelli-
gible; there were then, indeed, many great travellers, but
those travellers knew how uncertain their journeys were;
they were aware that any plans would be frequently liable
to interruption, and that nothing could be calculated on as
reasonably certain; they entered on long journeys, but re-
garded them as open to modification or even frustration;
in indicating their plans they knew that they would be
regarded by others as attempting something great and
strange. But St. Paul's method and language seem to show
clearly that such journeys as he contemplated were looked
on as quite natural and usual by those to whom he spoke
or wrote. He could go off from Greece or Macedonia to
Palestine, and reckon with practical certainty on being in
Jerusalem in time for a feast day not far distant.
It is the same with others: Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos,
Silas, Epaphroditus, Timothy, etc., move back and forward,
and are now found in one city, now in another far distant.
Unobservant of this characteristic, some writers have argued
that Romans xvi. 3 could not have been addressed to
correspondents who lived in Rome, because Aquila and
Priscilla, who were in Ephesus not long before the Epistle
was written, are there spoken of as living among those
correspondents. Such an argument could not be used by
people who had fully understood that independence of
mere local trammels and connections, and quite a marvel-
lous freedom in locomotion, are a strongly marked feature
of the early Church. That argument is one of the smallest
In the First Century 21
errors into which this false prepossession has led many-
scholars.
Communication by letter supplemented mere travelling-.
Such communication is the greatest factor in the develop-
ing of the Church; it kept alive the interest of the
Christian congregations in one another, and strengthened
their mutual affection by giving frequent opportunity of
expressing it ; it prevented the strenuous activity of the
widely scattered local Churches from being concentrated on
purely local matters and so degenerating into absorption in
their own immediate surroundings. Thus it bound together
all the Provincial Churches in the one Universal Church.
The Christian letters contained the saving power of the
Church ; and in its epistolary correspondence flowed its
life-blood. The present writer has elsewhere attempted to
show that the early Bishops derived their importance in
great degree from their position as representatives of the
several congregations in their relations with one another,
charged with the duty of hospitality to travellers and the
maintenance of correspondence, since through this position
they became the guardians of the unity of the Universal
Church and the channels through which its life-blood
flowed.^
The one condition which was needed to develop episto-
lary correspondence to a very much greater extent in the
Roman Empire was a regular postal service. It seems a
remarkable fact that the Roman Imperial government,
keenly desirous as it was of encouraging and strengthening
the common feeling and bond of unity between different
parts of the Empire, never seems to have thought of es-
tablishing a general postal service within its dominions.
Augustus established an Imperial service, which was main-
2.2 II. Transmission of Letters in the First Century
tained throughout subsequent Roman times; but it was
strictly confined to Imperial and official business, and was
little more than a system of special Emperor's messengers
on a great scale. The consequence of this defect was that
every great organisation or trading company had to create
a special postal service for itself ; and private correspondents,
if not wealthy enough to send their own slaves as letter-
carriers, had to trust to accidental opportunities for trans-
mitting their letters.
The failure of the Imperial government to recognise how
much its own aims and schemes would have been aided by
facilitating communication through the Empire was con-
nected with one of the greatest defects of the Imperial
administration. It never learned that the strength and
permanence of a nation and of its government are depend-
ent on the education and character of the people : it never
attempted to educate the people, but only to feed and
amuse them. The Christian Church, which gradually
established itself as a rival organisation, did by its own
efforts what the Imperial government aimed at doing for the
nation, and succeeded better, because it taught people to
think for themselves, to govern themselves, and to main-
tain their own union by their own exertions. It seized
those two great facts of the Roman world, travelling and
letter-writing, and turned them to its own purposes. The
former, on its purely material side, it could only accept :
the latter it developed to new forms as an ideal and spiritual
instrument.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHRISTIAN LETTERS AND THEIR TRANSMISSION.
In the preceding chapter we have described the circum-
stances amid which the Christian letter-writing was de-
veloped ; and it was pointed out in conclusion that in the
pressure of those circumstances, or rather in the energetic
use of the opportunities which the circumstances of the
Roman Empire offered, there came into existence a kind
of letter, hitherto unknown in the world. The Christians
developed the older class of letter into new forms, ap-
plied it to new purposes, and placed it on a much higher
plane than it had ever before stood upon. In their hands
communication by letter became one of the most impor-
tant, if not the most important, of the agencies for con-
solidating and maintaining the sense of unity among the
scattered members of the one universal Church. By means
of letters the congregations expressed their mutual affection
and sympathy and sense of brotherhood, asked counsel of
one another, gave advice with loving freedom and plain
speaking to one another, imparted mutual comfort and
encouragement, and generally expressed their sense of their
common life. Thus arose a new category of epistles.
Dr. Deissmann in Bible Studies, p. i ff., following older
scholars, has rightly and clearly distinguished two previously
existing categories, the true letter — written by friend to
friend or to friends, springing from the momentary occasion,
intended only for the eye of the person or persons to whom
(23)
24 in. The Christian Letters
it is addressed — and the literary epistle — written with an
eye to the public, and studied with literary art. The literary
epistle is obviously later in origin than the true letter. It
implies the previous existence of the true letter as a well-
recognised type of composition, and the deliberate choice of
this type for imitation. Soon after the death of Aristotle
in 322 B.C. a fictitious collection of letters purporting to
have been written by him was published. Such forged
letters are composed for a literary purpose with an eye to
the opinion of the world. The forger deliberately writes
them after a certain type and with certain characteristics,
which may cause them to be taken for something which
they are not really. A fabrication like this proves at least
that the letter was already an established form of composi-
tion ; and the forger believed that he could calculate on
rousing public interest by falsely assuming this guise.
But it is impossible to follow Dr. Deissmann, it seems to
me, when he goes on to reduce all the letters of the New
Testament to one or other of those categories.^ He shows, it
is true, some consciousness that the two older categories are
insufficient, but the fact is that in the new conditions a new
category had been developed — the general letter addressed
to a whole congregation or to the entire Church of Christ.
These are true letters, in the sense that they spring from
the heart of the writer and speak direct to the heart of the
readers ; that they were often written in answer to a question,
or called forth by some special crisis in the history of the
persons addressed, so that they rise out of the actual situation
in which the writer conceives the readers to be placed ; that
they express the writer's keen and living sympathy with and
participation in the fortunes of the whole class addressed ;
that they are not affected by any thought of a wider public
And their Transmission 25
than the persons whom he directly addresses ; in short, he
empties out his heart in them. On the other hand, the
letters of this class express general principles of life and
conduct, religion and ethics, applicable to a wider range of
circumstances than those which have called forth the special
letter; and they appeal as emphatically and intimately to
all Christians in all time as they did to those addressed in
the first instance.
It was not long before this wider appeal was perceived.
It is evident that when St. Paul bade the Colossians send
his letter to be read in the Laodicean Church, and read
themselves the Laodicean letter, he saw that each was ap-
plicable to a wider circle than it directly addressed. But
it is equally evident that the Colossian letter was composed
not with an eye to that wider circle, but directly to suit
the critical situation in Colossse. The wider application
arises out of the essential similarity of human nature in
both congregations and in all mankind. The crisis that
has occurred in one congregation is likely at some period
to occur in other similar bodies ; and the letter which
speaks direct to the heart of one man or one body of men
will speak direct to the heart of all men in virtue of their
common human nature. Here lies the essential character
of this new category of letters. In the individual case
they discover the universal principle, and state it in such
a way as to reach the heart of every man similarly situ-
ated; and yet they state this, not in the way of formal
exposition, but in the way of direct personal converse,
written in place of spoken.
Some of those Christian letters are more diverse from the
true letter than others ; and Dr. Deissmann tries to force
them into his too narrow classification by calling some of
26 III. The Christian Letters
them true letters and others Uterary epistles. But none of
the letters in the New Testament can be restricted within
the narrow range of his definition of the true letter: even
the letter to Philemon, intimate and personal as it is, rebels
in some parts against this strictness, and rises into a far
higher and broader region of thought : it is addressed not
only to Philemon and Apphia and Archippus, but also "to
the Church in thy house."
Such letters show a certain analogy to the Imperial
rescripts. The rescript was strictly a mere reply to a
request for guidance in some special case, addressed by
an official to the Emperor; yet it came to be regarded as
one of the chief means of improving and developing Roman
public law. A rescript arose out of special circumstances
and stated the Emperor's opinion on them in much the
same way as if the official had consulted him face to face;
the rescript was written for the eye of one official, without
any thought of others ; but it set forth the general principle
of policy which applied to the special case. The rescripts
show how inadequate Dr. Deissmann's classification is. It
would be a singularly incomplete account of them to class
them either as true letters or as literary epistles. They
have many of the characteristics of the true letter; in them
the whole mind and spirit of the Imperial writer was ex-
pressed for the benefit of one single reader; but they lack
entirely the spontaneity and freshness of the true letter.
As expressing general truths and universal principles, they
must have been the result of long experience and careful
thought, though the final expression was often hasty and
roused by some special occasion. This more studied char-
acter differentiates them from the mere unstudied expression
of personal affection and interest.
And their Transmission 27
Similarly, those general letters of the Christians express
and embody the growth in the law of the Church and in
its common life and constitution. They originated in the
circumstances of the Church. The letter of the Council
at Jerusalem (Acts xv. 22, ff.) arose out of a special occa-
sion, and was the reply to a question addressed from Syria
to the central Church and its leaders ; the reply was
addressed to the Churches of the province of Syria and
Cilicia, and specially the Church of the capital of that
province ; but it was forthwith treated as applicable equally
to other Christians, and was communicated as authorita-
tive by Paul and Silas to the Churches of Galatia (Acts
xvi. 4).
The peculiar relation of fatherhood and authority in
which Paul stood to his own Churches developed still
further this category of letters. Mr. V. Bartlet has some
good remarks on it in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible,
i., p. 730, from which we may be allowed to quote two
sentences. "Of a temper too ardent for the more studied
forms of writing, St. Paul could yet by letter, and so on
the spur of occasion, concentrate all his wealth of thought,
feeling and maturing experience upon some particular re-
ligious situation, and sweep away the difficulty or danger.
. . . The true cause of" all his letters "lay deep in the
same spirit as breathes in First Thessalonians, the essen-
tially 'pastoral' instinct".
A still further development towards general philosophico-
legal statement of religious dogma is apparent on the one
hand in Romans, addressed to a Church which he had not
founded, and on the other hand in the Pastoral Epistles.
The latter have a double character, being addressed by
Paul to friends and pupils of his own, partly in their
28 III. The Christian Letters
capacity of personal friends — such portions of the letters
being of the most intimate, incidental, and unstudied
character — but far more in their official capacity as heads
and overseers of a group of Churches — such parts of the
letters being really intended more for the guidance of the
congregations than of the nominal addressees, and being,
undoubtedly, to a considerable extent merely confirmatory
of the teaching already given to the congregations by
Timothy and Titus. The double character of these Epistles
is a strong proof of their authenticity. Such a mixture of
character could only spring from the intimate friend and
leader, whose interest in the work which his two subordin-
ates were doing was at times lost in the personal relation.
The Catholic Epistles represent a further stage of this
development. First Peter is addressed to a very wide yet
carefully defined body of Churches in view of a serious trial
to which they are about to be exposed. Second Peter,
James, and First John are quite indefinite in their address
to all Christians. But all of them are separated by a broad
and deep division from the literary epistle written for
the public eye. They are informed and inspired with the
intense personal affection which the writers felt for every
individual of the thousands whom they addressed. They
are entirely devoid of the artificiality which is inseparable
from the literary epistle ; they come straight from the heart
and speak straight to the heart; whereas the literary
epistle is always and necessarily written with a view to
its effect on the public, and the style is affected and to a
certain degree forced and even unnatural. It was left for
the Christian letter to prove that the heart of man is wide
enough and deep enough to entertain the same love for
thousands as for one. The Catholic Epistles are therefore
And their Transmission 29
quite as far removed from the class of "literary epistles"
as the typical letters of Paul are from the class of "true
letters," as those classes have been defined; and the re-
semblance in essentials between the Catholic and the
typical Pauline Epistles is sufficient to overpower the
points of difference, and to justify us in regarding them
as forming a class by themselves.
This remarkable development, in which law, statesman-
ship, ethics, and religion meet in and transform the simple
letter, was the work of St. Paul more tlian of any other.
But it was not due to him alone, nor initiated by him. It
began before him and continued after him. It sprang from
the nature of the Church and the circumstances of the time.
The Church was Imperial, the visible Kingdom of God. Its
leaders felt that their letters expressed the will of God ;
and they issued their truly Imperial rescripts. "It seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us" is the bold and regal
exordium of the first Christian letter.
Christian letters in the next two or three centuries were
often inspired by something of the same spirit. Congrega-
tion spoke boldly and authoritatively to congregation, as
each was moved by the Spirit to write: the letter partook
of the nature of an Imperial rescript, yet it was merely the
expression of the intense interest taken by equal in equal,
and brother in brother. The whole series of such letters is
indicative of the strong interest of all individuals in the
government of the entire body ; and they form one of the
loftiest and noblest embodiments of a high tone of feeling
common to a very large number of ordinary, commonplace,
undistinguished human beings.
Such a development of the letter was possible in that
widely scattered body of the Church only through the
30 in. The Christian Letters
greatly increased facilities for travel and intercourse. The
Church showed its marvellous intuition and governing capa-
city by seizing this opportunity. In this, as in many other
ways, it was the creature of its time, suiting itself to the
needs of the time, which was ripe for it, and using the
conditions and opportunities of the time with true creative
statesmanship.2
As has been said, correspondence is impossible without
some safe means of conveyance. A confidential letter, the
real outpouring of one's feelings, is impossible unless the
writer feels reasonably sure that the letter will reach the
proper hands, and still more that it will not fall into
the wrong hands. Further, it has been pointed out that
there was no public post, and that any individual or any
trading company which maintained a large correspondence
was forced to maintain an adequate number of private
letter-carriers. The great financial associations of publicani
in the last century b.c. had bodies of slave messengers,
called tahellarii, to carry their letters between the central
administration in Rome and the agents scattered over every
province where they conducted business. Wealthy private
persons employed some of their own slaves as tabellarii.
But if such messengers were to be useful, they must be
experienced, and they must be familiar with roads and
methods of travel : in short, any great company which
maintained a large correspondence must necessarily organ-
ise a postal service of its own. The best routes and halts
were marked out, the tahellarii travelled along fixed roads,
and the administration could say approximately where any
messenger was likely to be at any moment, when a letter
would arrive and the orders which it contained be put in
execution, when each messenger would return and be avail-
And their Transmission 31
able for a new mission. All this lies at the basis of good
organisation and successful conduct of business. As to the
details we know nothing; no account of such things has
been preserved. But the existence of such a system must
be presupposed as a condition, before great business opera-
tions like the Roman could be carried on. A large corre-
spondence implies a special postal system.
Now we must apply this to the Christian letters. Many
such letters were sent : those which have been preserved
must be immensely multiplied to give any idea of the
number really despatched. The importance of this corre-
spondence for the welfare and growth of the Church was,
as has been shown, very great. Some provision for the safe
transmission of that large body of letters, official and private,
was obviously necessary. Here is a great subject, as to
which no information has been preserved.
It must be supposed (as was stated above, that the
bishops had the control of this department of Church work.
In the first place the bishop wrote in the name of the
congregation of which he was an official: this is known
from the case of the Roman Clement, whose letter to the
Corinthians is expressed in the name of the Roman Church.
The reference to him in the Shepherd of Hermas, Vision,
ii., 4, 3, as entrusted with the duty of communicating with
other Churches, confirms the obvious inference from his
letter, and the form of the reference shows that the case
was not an exceptional, but a regular and typical one.
This one case, therefore, proves sufficiently what was the
practice in the Church.^
In the second place the bishop was charged with the duty
of hospitality, i.e. of receiving and providing for the com-
32 III. The Christian Letters
fort of the envoys and messengers from other Churches:
this is distinctly stated in i Timothy iii. i ff. and Titus
i. 5 if. To understand what is impHed in this duty, it is
necessary to conceive clearly the situation. As has been
already pointed out, the Christian letter-writers had to find
their own messengers. It cannot be doubted that, as an
almost invariable rule, those messengers were Christians.
Especially, all official letters from one congregation to
another must be assumed to have been borne by Christian
envoys. Epaphroditus, Tychicus, Silas and others, who
occur as bearers of letters in the New Testament, must be
taken as examples of a large class. St. Paul himself carried
and delivered the first known Christian letter. That class of
travelling Christians could not be sufifered to lodge in pagan
inns, which were commonly places of the worst character
in respect of morality and comfort and cleanliness.* They
were entertained by their Christian brethren ; that was a duty
incumbent on the congregation ; and the bishops had to
superintend and be responsible for the proper discharge of
this duty. It must therefore be understood that such en-
voys would address themselves first to the bishop, when
they came to any city where there was an organised body
of Christians resident, and that all Christian travellers would
in like manner look to the bishop for guidance to suitable
quarters. Considering that the number of Christian travellers
must have been large, it is entirely impossible to interpret
the duty of hospitality, with which the bishop was charged,
as implying that he ought to entertain them in his own house.
In the third place, it seems to follow as a necessary
corollary from the two preceding duties, that the letters
addressed to any congregation were received by the bishop
in its name and as its representative.
And their Transmission 33
From the fact that the letter-carriers were usually
Christian, we must infer that they were not likely as a rule
to be, like the tabellarii of the great Roman companies,
slaves trained to the duty and doing nothing else. In
many cases, certainly, the letters were carried by persons
who had other reasons for travelling. But in a great pro-
vince like Asia, it was necessary to have more regular
messengers within the province, and not to depend entirely
on accidental opportunities. Undoubtedly, messengers had
often to be sent with letters round the congregations of the
province. In the earlier stages of Church development,
probably, those messengers were volunteers, discharging
a duty which among the pagans was almost entirely per-
formed by slaves: just as Luke and Aristarchus, when
they travelled with St. Paul to Rome, must have volun-
tarily passed as his servants, i.e. as slaves, in order to be
admitted to the convoy. In such cases, it is apparent how
much this sense of duty ennobled labour and raised the
social standing of the labourer, who was now a volunteer,
making himself like a slave in the service of the Church.
In this there is already involved the germ of a general
emancipation of slaves and the substitution of free for
slave labour.
As time passed, and the work grew heavier, the organisa-
tion must have become more complex, and professional
carriers of letters were probably required. But as to the
details we know nothing, though the general outlines of the
system were dictated by the circumstances of the period,
and can be restored accordingly. Thus, as soon as we
begin to work out the idea of the preparations and equip-
ment required in practice for this great system, we find
ourselves obliged to admit the existence of a large or-
34 III. Christian Letters and their Transmission
ganisation. The Church stands before those who rightly
conceive its practical character, as a real antagonist in the
fullest sense to the Imperial government, creating and
managing its own rival administration. We thus under-
stand better the hatred which the Imperial government
could not but feel for it, a hatred which is altogether
misapprehended by those who regard it as springing from
religious ground. We understand too how Constantine at
last recognised in the Church the one bond which could
hold together the disintegrating Empire. Whether or not he
was a Christian, he at least possessed a statesman's insight.
And his statesmanlike insight in estimating the practical
strength of rival religions stands out as all the more
wonderful, if he were not a Christian at heart; for (though
many years of his youth and earlier manhood had been
spent in irksome detention in the East, where Christianity
was the popular and widely accepted religion), yet his
choice was made in the West, the country of his birth and
of his hopes, where Mithraism was the popular and most
influential religion : it was made amid the soldiery, which
was almost entirely devoted to the religion of Mithras.^
CHAPTER IV.
THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES.
One of the most remarkable parts of that strange and
difficult book, the Revelation of St. John, is the passage ii.
I to iii. 22, containing the Seven Letters. The Apocalypse
as a whole belongs to a large and well-known class of later
Jewish literature, and has many features in common with
previous Apocalypses of Jewish origin. St. John was using
an established literary form, which he adapted in a cer-
tain degree to his purposes, but which seriously fettered
and impeded him by its fanciful and unreal character. As
a general rule he obeys the recognised laws of apocalyptic
composition, and imitates the current forms so closely that
his Apocalypse has been wrongly taken by some scholars,
chiefly German, as a work of originally pure and unmixed
Jewish character, which was modified subsequently to a
Christian type.
In this work, Jewish in origin and general plan, and to a
great extent Jewish in range of topics, there is inserted this
episode of the Seven Letters, which appears to be almost
entirely non-Jewish in character and certainly non-Jewish
in origin and model. There must have been therefore
some reason which seemed to the author to demand im-
peratively the insertion of such an episode in a work of
diverse character. The reason was that the form of letters
had already established itself as the most characteristic
expression of the Christian mind, and as almost obligatory
(35)
36 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
on a Christian writer. Though many other forms have
been tried in Christian hterature, e.g. the dialogue, the
formal treatise, etc., yet the fact remains that — apart from
the fundamental four Gospels — the highest and most stimu-
lating and creative products of Christian thought have been
expressed in the epistolary form. This was already vaguely
present in the mind of St. John while he was composing
the Apocalypse. Under this compelling influence he aban-
dons the apocalyptic form for a brief interval, and ex-
presses his thought in the form of letters. In them he
makes some attempt to keep up the symbolism which was
prescribed by the traditional principles of apocalyptic com-
position ; but such imagery is too awkward and cumbrous
for the epistolary form, and has exerted little influence on
the Seven Letters. The traditional apocalyptic form breaks
in his hands, and he throws away the shattered fragments.
In the subsequent development of St. John's thought
it is plain that he had recognised the inadequacy and
insufficiency of the fashionable Jewish literary forms. It
seems highly probable that the perception of that fact
came to him during the composition of the Revelation, and
that the Seven Letters, though placed near the beginning
and fitted carefully into that position, were the last part of
the work to be conceived.
It must also be noticed that the book of the Revelation,
as a whole, except the first three verses, is cast in the form
of a letter. After the brief introduction, the fourth verse
is expressed in the regular epistolary form : —
John to the Seven Asian Churches:
Grace to you and peace, from him zvhich is and which was
and which is to come; and from the Seven Spirits^ etc.
The Letters to the Seven Churches 2>7
Such a beginning is out of keeping with the ordinary-
apocalyptic form; but the pastoral instinct was strong in
the writer, and he could never lose the sense of responsi-
bility for the Churches that were under his charge. Just
as the Roman Consul read in the sky the signs of the will
of heaven on behalf of the State, so St. John saw in the
heavens the vision of trial and triumph on behalf of the
Churches entrusted to his care. All that he saw and heard
was for them rather than for himself ; and this is distinctly
intimated to him, i. ii, What thou seest, write in a hook, and
send to the Seven Churches.
The expression just quoted from i. ij,zvrite in a book, and
send, obviously refers to the vision as a whole. It is not an
introduction to the Seven Letters : it is the order to write
out and send the entire Apocalypse. This the writer does,
and sends it with the covering letter, which begins in i. 4.
Hence i. 11 explains the origin of i. 4. The idea of the
letter as the inevitable Christian form was firmly in the
writer's mind. He must write an Apocalypse with the
record of his vision ; but he must enclose it in a letter to
the Churches.
The Apocalypse would be quite complete without the
Seven Letters: chapter iv. follows chapter i. naturally.
The Seven Letters spring from the sense of reality, the
living vigorous instinct, from which the Christian spirit can
never free itself. An Apocalypse could not content St,
John: it did not bring him in close enough relation to his
Churches. And so, as a second thought, he addressed the
Seven representative Churches one by one; and, as the
letters could not be placed last, he placed them near the
beginning; but the one link of connection between them
and the Apocalypse lies in the words with which each is
38 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
finished: he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit
saith to the Churches, i.e. not merely the words of the Letter,
but the Apocalypse which follows.
It is also not improbable that St. John had received a
greater share of the regular Jewish education than most of
his fellow-Apostles, and that, through his higher education,
the accepted Jewish forms of composition had a greater
hold on his mind, and were more difficult for him to throw
off, than for Peter, who had never been so deeply imbued
with them. However that may be, it is at least evident in
his later career that a new stage began for him at this point,
that he discarded Hebrew literary models and adopted
more distinctly Greek forms, and that his literary style and
expression markedly improved at the same time. Proper
consideration of these facts must surely lead to the conclu-
sion that no very long interval of time must necessarily be
supposed to have elapsed between the composition of the
Revelation and of the Gospel. The change in style is in-
deed very marked ; but it is quite in accordance with the
observed facts of literary growth in other men that a critical
and epoch-making step in mental development, when one
frees oneself from the dominion of a too narrow early edu-
cation, and strikes out in a path of originality, may be ac-
companied by a very marked improvement in linguistic
expression and style.
The Seven Letters are farther removed from the type
of the "true letter" than any other compositions in the
New Testament. In their conception they are strictly
"literary epistles," deliberate and intentional imitations of a
literary form that was already firmly established in Christian
usage. They were not intended to be sent directly to the
Churches to which they were addressed. They had never
The Letters to the Seven Churches 39
any separate existence apart from one another and from
the book of which they are a part. They are written on
a uniform plan, which is absolutely opposed to the spon-
taneity and directness of the true letter. At the stage in
his development, which we have supposed the author to be
traversing, he passed from the domination of one literary
form, the Jewish apocalyptic, to the domination of another
literary form, the Christian epistolary. He had not yet
attained complete literary freedom : he had not yet come to
his heritage, emancipated himself from the influence of
models, and launched forth on the ocean of his own wonder-
ful genius. But he was just on the point of doing so. One
step more, and he was his own master.
How near that step was is obvious, when we look more
closely into the character of the Seven Letters. It is only
by very close study, as in the chapters below devoted to the
individual letters, that the reader can duly appreciate the
special character of each. To sum up and anticipate the
results of that closer study, it may here be said that the
author of the Seven Letters, while composing them all on
the same general lines, as mere parts of an episode in a great
work of literature, imparts to them many touches, specially
suitable to the individual Churches, and showing his intimate
knowledge of them all. In each case, as he wrote the
letter, the Church to which it was addressed stood before
his imagination in its reality and its life ; he was absorbed
with the thought of it alone, and he almost entirely forgot
that he was composing a piece of literature, and apostro-
phised it directly, with the same overmastering earnestness
and sense of responsibility that breathe through St. Paul's
letters.
As will be shown fully in chapter xiv., the Seven Churches
40 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
stood as representative of seven groups of congregations;
but the Seven Letters are addressed to them as individual
Churches, and not to the groups for which they stand.
The letters were written by one who was familiar with the
situation, the character, the past history, the possibilities of
future development, of those Seven Cities. The Church of
Sardis, for example, is addressed as the Church of that
actual, single city: the facts and characteristics mentioned
are proper to it alone, and not common to the other Churches
of the Hermus Valley. Those others were not much in the
writer's mind: he was absorbed with the thought of that
one city: he saw only death before it. But the other cities
which were connected with it may be warned by its fate;
and he that overcometh shall be spared and honoured.
Similarly, St. Paul's letter to Colossae was written specially
for it alone, and with no reference to Laodicea ; yet it was
ordered to be communicated to Laodicea, and read publicly
there also.
This singleness of vision is not equally marked on the
surface of every letter. In the message to Laodicea, the
thought of the other cities of the group is perhaps ap-
parent; and possibly the obscurity of the Thyatiran Letter
may be due in some degree to the outlook upon the other
cities of its group, though a quite sufficient and more prob-
able reason is our almost complete ignorance of the special
character of that city.
To this singleness of vision, the clearness with which the
writer sees each single city, and the directness with which
he addresses himself to each, is due the remarkable variety
of character in the whole series. The Seven Letters were
evidently all written together, in the inspiration of one
occasion and one purpose; and yet how different each is
The Letters to the Seven Churches 41
from all the rest, in spite of the similarity of purpose and
plan and arrangement in them all! Each of the Seven
Churches is painted with a character of its own; and very
different futures await them. The writer surveys them
from the point of view of one who believes that natural
scenery and geographical surroundings exercise a strong
influence on the character and destiny of a people. He
fixes his eye on the broad features of the landscape. In
the relations of sea and land, river and mountains — rela-
tions sometimes permanent, sometimes mutable — he reads
the tale of the forces that insensibly mould the minds of
men. Now that is not a book which he that runs may
read. It is a book with seven seals, which can be opened
only by long familiarity, earnest patient thought, and the
insight given by belief and love. The reader must have
attuned himself to harmony with the city and the natural
influences that had made it. St. John from his lofty
standpoint could look forward into the future, and see what
should come to each of his Churches.
He assumes always that the Church is, in a sense, the
city. The local Church does not live apart from the
locality and the population, amid which it has a mere
temporary abode. The Church is all that is real in the
city: the rest of the city has failed to reach its true self,
and has been arrested in its development. Similarly, the
local Church in its turn has not all attained to its own
perfect development: the "angel" is the truth, the reality,
the idea (in Platonic sense) of the Church. Thus in that
quaint symbolism the city bears to its Church the same
relation that the Church bears to its angel. But here we
are led into subjects that will be more fully discussed in
chapters vi. and xvi. For the present we shall only re-
42 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
view in brief the varied characters of the Seven Churches
and the Seven Cities, constituting among them an epitome
of the Universal Church and of the whole range of human
life.
The note alike in the Church and in the history of
Ephesus has been change. The Church was enthusiastic;
but it has been cooling. It has fallen from its high plane
of conduct and spirit. And the penalty denounced against
it is that it shall be moved out of its place, unless it re-
creates its old spirit and enthusiasm : "I have this against
thee that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore
from zvhcnce thoii art fallen and repent and do the first
works; or else I come to thee, and zvill move thy lamp out
of its place." And, similarly, in the history of the city the
same note is distinct. An extraordinary series of changes
and vicissitudes had characterised it, and would continue
to do so. Mutability was the law of its being. The land
and the site of the city had varied from century to century.
What was water became land ; what was city ceased to be
inhabited; what was bare hillside and cultivated lowland
became a great city crowded with a teeming population;
what was a harbour filled with the shipping of the whole
world has become a mere inland sea of reeds, through
which the wind moans with a vast volume of sound like
the distant waves breaking on a long stretch of sea-coast
in storm.
The distinctive note of the letter to Smyrna is faithfulness
that gives life, and appearance bettered by reality. The
Church "was dead and lived," like Him who addressed it:
it was poor, but rich : it was about to suffer for a period, but
the period is definite, and the suffering comes to an end,
and the Church will prove faithful through it all and gain
The Letters to the Seven Churches 43
"the crown of life". Such also had the city been in history :
it gloried in the title of the faithful friend of Rome, true to
its great ally alike in danger and in prosperity. The con-
ditions of nature amid which it was planted were firm and
everlasting. Before it was an arm of the vast, unchanging,
unconquerable sea, its harbour and the source of its life
and strength. Behind it rose its Hill (Pagos) crowned with
the fortified acropolis, as one looks at it from the front
apparently only a rounded hillock of 450 feet elevation ;
but ascend it, and you discover it to be really a corner of
the great plateau behind, supported by the immeasurable
strength of the Asian continent which pushes it forward
towards the sea. The letter is full of joy and life and
brightness, beyond all others of the Seven ; and such is the
impression the city still makes on the traveller (who usually
comes to it as his first experience of the towns of Asia
Minor), throwing back the glittering rays of the sun with
proportionate brightness, while its buildings spring sharp
out of the sea and rise in tiers up the front slopes of its
Pagos,
Pergamum stands before us in the letter as the city of
authority, beside the throne — the throne of this world and
of the power of evil, where the lord of evil dwelleth. And
to its victorious Church is promised a greater authority, the
power of the mighty name of God, known only to the giver
and the receiver. It was the royal city of history, seat of
the Attalid Kings and chief centre of the Roman Imperial
administration ; and the epithet "royal" is the one that
rises unbidden to the traveller's lips, especially if he beholds
it after seeing the other great cities of the land, with its
immense acropolis on a rock rising out of the plain like a
mountain, self-centred in its impregnable strength, looking
44 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
out over the distant sea and over the land right away to
the hills beside far off Smyrna.
Thyatira, with its low and small acropolis in its beautiful
valley, stretching north and south like a long funnel between
two gently swelling ridges of hill, conveys the impression of
mildness, and subjection to outward influence, and inability
to surmount and dominate external circumstances. The
letter to Thyatira is mainly occupied with the inability of
the Church to rise superior to the associations and habits
of contemporary society, and its contented voluntary acqui-
escense in them (which was called the Nicolaitan heresy).
Yet even in the humble Thyatira he that perseveres to
the end and overcomes shall be rewarded with irresistible
power among the nations, that smashing power which its
own deity pretends to wield with his battle-axe, a power
like but greater than that of mighty Rome itself. In the
remnant of the Thyatiran Church, which shall have shown
the will to resist temptation, weakness shall be made strong.
The letter to the Sardian Church breathes the spirit of
death, of appearance without reality, promise without per-
formance, outward show of strength betrayed by want of
watchfulness and careless confidence. Thou hast a name
that thou livest and thou art dead. . . . I have found no works
of thine fulfilled. . . . I will come as a thief comes; and thou
shalt not knoiv what hour I zvill come upon thee. And such
also was the city and its history. Looked at from a little
distance to the north in the open plain, Sardis wore an
imposing, commanding, impregnable aspect, as it domin-
ated that magnificent broad valley of the Hermus from its
robber stronghold on a steep spur that stands out boldly
from the great mountains on the south. But, close at hand,
the hill is seen to be but mud, slightly compacted, never
The Letters to the Seven Churches 45
trustworthy or lasting, crumbling under the influences of
the weather, ready to yield even to a blow of the spade.
Yet the Sardians always trusted to it; and their careless
confidence had often been deceived, when an adventurous
enemy climbed in at some unguarded point, where the
weathering of the soft rock had opened a way,
Philadelphia was known to the whole world as the city
of earthquakes, whose citizens for the most part lived out-
side, not venturing to remain in the town, and were always
on the watch for the next great catastrophe. Those who
knew it best were aware that its prosperity depended on
the great road from the harbour of Smyrna to Phrygia
and the East. Philadelphia, situated where this road is
about to ascend by a difficult pass to the high central
plateau of Phrygia, held the key and guarded the door.
It was also of all the Seven Cities the most devoted to the
name of the Emperors, and had twice taken a new title
or epithet from the Imperial god, abandoning in one case
its own ancient name. The Church had been a missionary
Church, and Christ Himself, bearer of the key of David,
had opened the door before it, which none shall shut. He
Himself "zvill keep thee from the hour of trial" the great
and imminent catastrophe that shall come upon the whole
world. But for the victor there remains stability, like that
of the strong column that supports the temple of God ; and
he shall not ever again need to go out for safety ; and he
shall take as his new name the name of God and of His
city.
The Laodicean Church is strongly marked in the letter
as the irresolute one, which had not been able to make up
its mind, and halted half-heartedly, neither one thing nor
another. It would fain be enriched, and clad in righteous-
46 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
ness, and made to see the truth; but it would trust to itself;
in its own gold it would find its wealth, in its own manu-
factures it would make its garments, in its own famous
medical school it would seek its cure; it did not feel its
need but was content with what it had. It was neither
truly Christian, nor frankly pagan. This letter, alone
among the Seven, seems not to bring the character of the
Church into close relation to the great natural features
amid which the city .stood; but on the other hand it
shows a very intimate connection between the character
attributed to the Church and the commerce by which the
city had grown great.
The second half of this letter gradually passes into an
epilogue to the whole Seven; and this proves that, in spite
of the individual character of each letter, they form after
all only parts in an elaborate and highly wrought piece of
literature. It is hardly possible to say exactly where the
individual letter ends and the epilogue begins; in appear-
ance the whole bears the form after which all the letters
are modelled ; but there is a change from the individuahsation
of the letter to the general application of the epilogue.
To comprehend more fully the individuality of the
Seven Letters one should compare them with the letters of
Ignatius to the five Asian Churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Mag-
nesia, Tralleis, Philadelphia, or with the letter of Clement
to the Corinthian Church. Ignatius, it is true, had probably
seen only two of the five, and those only cursorily ; so that
the vagueness, the generality, and the lack of individual
traits in all his letters were inevitable. He insists on topics
which were almost equally suitable to all Christians, or on
those which not unnaturally filled his own mind in view of
his coming fate.
The Letters to the Seven Churches 47
But it is a remarkable fact that the more definite and
personal and individual those old Christian letters are, the
more vital and full of guidance are they to all readers.
The individual letters touch life most nearly; and the life
of any one man or Church appeals most intimately to all
men and all Churches.
The more closely we study the New Testament books
and compare them with the natural conditions, the localities
and the too scanty evidence from other sources about the
life and society of the first century, the more full of meaning
do we find them, the more strongly impressed are we with
their unique character, and the more wonderful becomes
the picture that is unveiled to us in them of the growth of
the Christian Church. It is because they were written with
the utmost fulness of vigour and life by persons who were
entirely absorbed in the great practical tasks which their
rapidly growing organisation imposed on them, because
they stand in the closest relation to the facts of the age,
that so much can be gathered from them. They rise to
the loftiest heights to which man in the fulness of inspira-
tion and perfect sympathy with the Divine will and purpose
can attain, but they stand firmly planted on the facts of
earth. The Asian Church was so successful in moulding
and modifying the institutions around it, because with un-
erring insight its leaders saw the deep-seated character of
those Seven Cities, their strength and their weakness, as
determined by their natural surroundings, their past history,
and their national character.
This series of studies of the Seven Letters may perhaps
be exposed to the charge of imagining fanciful connections
between the natural surroundings of the Seven Cities and
the tone of the Letters. Those who are accustomed to
48 IV. The Letters to the Seven Churches
the variety of character that exists in the West may refuse
to acknowledge that there exists any such connection
between the character of the natural surroundings and the
spirit, the Angel, of the Church.
But Western analogy is misleading. We Occidentals
are accustomed to struggle against Nature, and by under-
standing Nature's laws to subjugate her to our needs.
When a waterway is needed, as at Glasgow, we transform
a little stream into a navigable river. Where a harbour is
necessary to supply a defect in nature, we construct with
vast toil and at great cost an artificial port. We regulate
the flow of dangerous rivers, utilising all that they can give
us and restraining them from inflicting the harm they are
capable of. Thus in numberless ways we refuse to yield
to the influences that surround us, and by hard work rise
superior in some degree to them.
Such analogy must not be applied without careful con-
sideration in Asia. There man is far more under the
influence of nature ; and hence results a homogeneity of
character in each place which is surprising to the Western
traveller, and which he can hardly believe or realise with-
out long experience. Partly that subjection may be due
to the fact that nature and the powers of nature are on
a vaster scale in Asia. You can climb the highest Alps,
but the Himalayas present untrodden peaks, where the
powers of man fail. The Eastern people have had little
chance of subduing and binding to their will the mighty
rivers of Asia (except the Chinese, who regulated their
greatest rivers more than 2,000 years ago). The Hindus
have come to recognise the jungle as unconquerable, and
its wild beasts as irresistible; and they passively acquiesce
in their fate. Vast Asiatic deserts are accepted as due
(
The Letters to the Seven Churches 49
to the will of God; and through this humble resignation
other great stretches of land, which once were highly cul-
tivated, have come to be marked on the maps as desert,
because the difficulties of cultivation are no longer sur-
mountable by a passive and uninventive population. In
Asia mankind has accepted nature; and the attempts to
struggle against it have been almost wholly confined to a
remote past or to European settlers.
How it was that Asiatic races could do more to influence
nature at a very early time than they have ever attempted
in later times is a problem that deserves separate considera-
tion. Here we only observe that they themselves attributed
their early activity entirely to religion : the Mother-Goddess
herself taught her children how to conquer Nature by obey-
ing her and using her powers. In its subsequent steady
degradation their religion lost that early power.^
But among the experiences which specially impress the
traveller who patiently explores Asia Minor step by step,
village by village, and province by province, perhaps the
most impressive of all is the extent to which natural
circumstances mould the fate of cities and the character
of men. The dominance of nature is, certainly, more
complete now than it was of old; but still even in the
early ages of history it was great; and it is a main factor
both in moulding the historical mythology, or mythical
explanations of historical facts that were current among
the ancient peoples, and in guiding the more reasoned and
pretentious scientific explanations of history set forth by
the educated and the philosophers. The writer of the
Seven Letters has stated in them his view of the history
of each Church in harmony with the prominent features of
nature around the city.
CHAPTER V.
RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN BOOKS TO CONTEMPORARY
THOUGHT AND LITERATURE.
Symbolism does not take up so large a space in the Seven
Letters as it does in the rest of the Apocalypse. In the
letters the writer was brought more directly in contact with
real life and human conduct ; and the practical character of
Christian teaching had a stronger hold on him when he felt
himself, even in literature, face to face with a real congrega-
tion of human beings, and pictured to himself in imagination
their history and their needs, their faults and excellencies.
Yet even in the letters symbolism plays some part ; ideas
and objects are sometimes named, not in their immediate
sense, but as representatives or signs of something else.
Not merely is the general setting, the Seven Stars, the
Lamps (candle-sticks in the Authorised and the Revised
Versions), etc., symbolical: even in the letters there are
many expressions whose real meaning is not what lies on
the surface. The "crown of life," indeed, may be treated
as a mere figure of speech ; but the "ten days" of suffering
through which Smyrna must pass can hardly be regarded
as anything more than "a time which comes to an end".
Even the metaphors and other figures are not purely
literary: they have had a history, and have acquired a re-
cognised and conventional meaning. The "door," which is
mentioned in iii. 7, would hardly be intelligible without
regard to current Christian usage.
(50)
Relation of the Christian Books, etc. 51
Two points of view must be distinguished in this case.
In the first place a regular, generally accepted conventional
symbolism was growing up among the Christians, in which
Babylon meant Rome, a door meant an opening for mis-
sionary work, and so on: this subject has not yet been
properly investigated in a scientific way, apart from pre-
judices and prepossessions.
In the second place, the letters were written to be under-
stood by the Asian congregations, which mainly consisted
of converted pagans. The ideas expressed in the letters
had to be put in a form which the readers would understand ;
to suit their understanding the figures and comparisons
must be drawn from sources and objects familiar to them ;
the words must be used in the sense in which they were
commonly employed in the cities addressed; illustrations,
which were needed to bring home to the readers difficult
ideas, must be drawn from the circle of their experience
and education, chapters xi. and xiii.
It has been too much the custom to regard the earliest
Christian books as written in a specially Christian form of
speech, standing apart and distinguishable from the common
language of the eastern Roman Provinces. Had that been
the case, it is not too bold to say that the new religion
could not have conquered the Empire. It was because
Christianity appealed direct to the people, addressed them
in their own language, and made itself comprehensible to
them on their plane of thought, that it met the needs and
filled the heart of the Roman world.
It is true that the Christian books and letters had to
express doctrines, thoughts, ideas, truths, which were in a
sense new. But the newness and strangeness lay in the
spirit, not in the words or the metaphors or the illustrations.
52 V. Relation of the Christian Books
In the spirit lies the essence of the new thought and the
new Ufe, not in the words. This may seem to be, and in
a sense it is, a mere truism. Every one says it, and has
been saying it from the beginning; yet it is sometimes
strangely ignored and misunderstood, and in the last few
years we have had some remarkable examples of this. We
have seen treatises published in which the most remarkable
second-century statement of the essential doctrines and
facts of Christianity, the epitaph of Avircius Marcellus, — a
statement intended and declaring itself to be public, popu-
lar, before the eyes and minds of all men — has been argued
to be non-Christian, because every single word, phrase
and image in it is capable of a pagan interpretation, and
can be paralleled from pagan books and cults. That is
perfectly true ; it is an interesting fact, and well worthy of
being stated and proved; but it does not support the infer-
ence that is deduced. The parts, the words, are individually
capable of being all treated as pagan, but the essence, the
spirit, of the whole is Christian. As Aristotle says, a thing
is more than the sum of its parts ; the essence, the reality,
the Ousia, is that which has to be added to the parts in
order to make the thing.
It is therefore proposed in the present work to employ
ihe same method as in all the writer's other investigations —
to regard the Apocalypse as written in the current language
familiar to the people of the time, and not as expressed in
a peculiar and artificial Christian language: the term "arti-
ficial" is required, because, if the Christians used a kind of
language diflferent from that of the ordinary population, it
must have been artificial.
Nor are the thoughts — one might almost say, though the
expression must not be misapplied or interpreted in a way
To Contemporary Thought and Literature 53
different from what is intended — nor are the thoughts of
the Christian books alien from and unfamiliar to the period
when they were written. They stand in the closest relation
to the period. They are made for it: they suit it: they are
determined by it.
We take the same view about all the books of the New
Testament. They spring from the circumstances of their
period, whatever it was in each case ; they are suited to
its needs; in a way they think its thoughts, but think them
in a new form and on a higher plane ; they answer the
questions which men were putting, and the answers are
expressed in the language which was used and understood
at the time. Hence, in the first place, their respective
dates can be assigned with confidence, provided we under-
stand the history and familiarise ourselves with the thoughts
and ways of the successive periods. No one, who is capable
of appreciating the tone and thought of different periods,
could place the composition of any of the books of the
New Testament in the time of the Antonines, unless he
were imperfectly informed of the character and spirit of
that period ; and the fact that some modern scholars have
placed them (or some of them) in that period merely shows
with what light-hearted haste some writers have proceeded
to decide on difficult questions of literary history without
the preliminary training and the acquisition of knowledge
imperatively required before a fair judgment could be pro-
nounced.
From this close relation of the Christian books to the
time in which they originated, arises, e.g., the marvellously
close resemblance between the language used about the
birth of the divine Augustus and the language used about
the birth of Christ. In the words current in the Eastern
54 V. Relation of the Christian Books
Provinces, especially in the great and highly educated and
"progressive" cities of Asia, shortly before the Christian
era, the day of the birth of the (Imperial) God was the
beginning of all things; it inaugurated for the world the
glad tidings that came through him ; through him there
was peace on earth and sea: the Providence, which orders
every part of human life, brought Augustus into the world,
and filled him with the virtue to do good to men: he was
the Saviour of the race of men, and so on.i Some of these
expressions became, so to say, stereotyped for the Em-
perors in general, especially the title "Saviour of the race
of men," and phrases about doing good to mankind ; others
were more peculiarly the property of Augustus.
All this was not merely the language of courtly panegyric.
It was in a way thoroughly sincere, with all the sincerity
that the people of that overdeveloped and precocious time,
with their artificial, highly stimulated, rather feverish intel-
lect, were capable of feeling.^ But the very resemblance —
so startling, apparently, to those who are suddenly con-
fronted with a good example of it — is the best and entirely
sufficient proof that the idea and narrative of the birth of
Christ could not be a growth of mythology at a later time,
even during the period about a.d. 60-100, but sprang from
the conditions and thoughts, and expressed itself in the
words, of the period to which it professes to belong. It is
to a great extent on this and similar evidence that the
present writer has based his confident and unhesitating
opinion as to the time of origin of the New Testament
books, ever since he began to understand the spirit and
language of the period. Before he began to appreciate
them, he accepted the then fashionable view that they were
second century works.
To Contemporary Thought and Literature 55
But so far removed are some scholars from recognising
the true bearing of these facts, and the true relation of the
New Testament to the life and thought of its own time,
that probably the fashionable line of argument will soon
be that the narrative of the Gospels was a mere imitation
of the popular belief about the birth of Augustus, and
necessarily took its origin during the time when that popu-
lar belief was strong, vis., during the last thirty years of
his reign. The belief died with him, and would cease to
influence thought within a few years after his death: he
was a god only for his lifetime (though a pretence was
made of worshipping all the deceased Emperors who were
properly deified by decree of the Senate) : even in old age
it is doubtful if he continued to make the same impression
on his people, but as soon as he died a new god took his
place. New ideas and words then ruled among men, for
the new god never was heir to the immense public belief
which hailed the divine Augustus. With Tiberius began a
new era, new thoughts, and new forms: he was the New
Caesar, Neos Kaisar.
There are already some signs that, as people begin to
learn these facts, which stand before us on the stones en-
graved before the birth of Christ, this line of argument
is beginning to be developed. It will at least have this
great advantage, that it assigns correctly the period when
the Christian narrative originated, and that it cuts away
the ground beneath the feet of those who have maintained
that the Gospels are the culmination of a long subsequent
growth of mythology about a more or less historical Jesus.
The Gospels, as we have them, though composed in the
second half, and for the most part in the last quarter, of
the first century, are a faithful presentation in thought and
56 V. Relation of the Christian Books, etc.
word of a much older and well-attested history, and are
only in very small degree affected by the thoughts and
language of the period when their authors wrote, remaining
true to the form as fixed by earlier registration.
Similarly, the Seven Letters are the growth of their time,
and must be studied along with it. They belong to the
last quarter of the first century ; and it is about that time
that we may look for the best evidence as to the meaning
that they would bear to their original readers.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SEVEN LETTERS.
In attempting to get some clear idea with regard to the
symbolism involved in the Seven Letters, it is not proposed
to discuss the symbolism of the Apocalypse as a whole,
still less the religious or theological intention of its author.
The purpose of this chapter is much more modest — merely
to try to determine what was the meaning which ordinary
people in the cities of Asia would gather from the sym-
bolism: especially how would they understand the Seven
Stars, the Lamps and the Angels. That is a necessary
preliminary, if we are to appreciate the way in which Asian
readers would understand the book and the letters ad-
dressed to them.
In the Seven Letters symbolism is less obtrusive and
more liable to be unnoticed than in the visions that follow ;
and it will best show their point of view to take first a
simple example of the figures which march across the stage
of the Apocalypse itself in the later chapters. Those figures
are to be interpreted according to the symbols which they
bear and the accompaniments of their progress before the
eyes of the seer. It is the same process of interpretation as
is applied in the study of Greek art: for example a horse-
man almost identical in type and action appears on the two
coins represented on pages 318, 319. In one this horseman
is marked by the battle-axe which he carries as the warlike
hero of the military colony Thyatira. The other shows
(57)
58 VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
a more peaceful figure, the Emperor Caracalla visiting
Thyatira.
Similarly, in vi. 2 the bowman sitting on a white horse,
to whom a crown was given, is the Parthian king. The
bow was not a Roman weapon: it was not used in Roman
armies except by a few auxiliaries levied among outlying
tribes, who carried their national weapon. The Parthian
weapon was the bow ; the warriors were all horsemen ; and
they could use the bow as well when they were fleeing
as when they were charging. The writers of that period
often mention the Parthian terror on the East, and their
devastating incursions were so much dreaded at that time
that Trajan undertook a Parthian war in 115. Virgil
foretells a Roman victory: the bow and the horse have
been useless: —
With backward bows the Parthians shall be there,
And, spurring from the fight, confess their fear.
Colour was also an important and significant detail. The
Parthian king in vi. 2 rides on a white horse. White had
been the sacred colour among the old Persians, for whom
the Parthians stood in later times ; and sacred white horses
accompanied every Persian army. The commentators who
try to force a Roman meaning on this figure say that the
Roman general, when celebrating a Triumph, rode on a
white horse. This is a mistake ; the general in a Triumph
wore the purple and gold-embroidered robes of Jupiter, and
was borne like the god in a four-horse car. See p. 386.
The use of colour here as symbolical is illustrated by
the custom of Tamerlane. When he laid siege to a city,
he put up white tents, indicating clemency to the enemy.
If resistance was prolonged forty days, he changed the
tents, and put up red ones, portending a bloody capture.
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters 59
If obstinate resistance was persisted in for other forty days,
black tents were substituted : the city was to be sacked
with a general massacre. The meaning of the colours
differs; there was no universal principle of interpretation;
significance depended to some extent on circumstances
and individual preference.
It is not to be supposed that St. John consciously
modelled his descriptions on works of art. He saw the
figures march across the heavens. But such ideas and
^ , The ideal Parthian king, as he appears on
'■■!
Parthian Coins, 150 B.C. -200 A.D.
symbolic forms were in the atmosphere and in the minds
of men at the time; and the ideas with which he was
familiar moulded the imagery of his visions, unconsciously
to himself. It is quite in the style of Greek art that one
monster in xiii. should rise from the sea and the other
appear out of the earth (as we shall see in chapter vii.) ;
but those ideas are used with freedom. The shapes of the
monsters are not of Greek art; they are modifications of
traditional apocalyptic devices ; but the seer saw them in
6o VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
situations whose meaning we interpret from the current
ideas and forms of art. Hence, e.g., in the Pergamenian
letter, the white stone is not to be explained as an imita-
tion of a precisely similar white stone used in ordinary
pagan life (as most recent commentators suppose) ; it is
a free employment of a common form in a new way to
suit a Christian idea. The current forms are used in the
Apocalypse, not slavishly, but creatively and boldly ; and
Fig. 2
The Parthian king welcomed by the genius of the capital.
Parthian Coins, 42-65 a.d.
they must not be interpreted pedantically. A new spirit
has been put into them by the writer.
Thus to refer to the Parthian king of vi. 2: the type of
the archer-horseman was familiar to the thought of all in
the eastern Provinces ; but if we look at the most typical
representations, those which occur on coins, we find the
various elements separately, but not united. The regular
reverse type on Parthian coins shows the founder of the
race, Arsaces, deified as Apollo, sitting on the holy omphalos,
and holding the bow, the symbol of authority based on
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
6i
military power (see Fig. i, p. 59). A rarer type, though
common on coins of King Vonones (83-100 a.d.) and of
Artabanus III. (42-65), shows the monarch on horseback
welcomed by the genius of the State : Fig. 2 gives the
type of Artabanus : the king wears Oriental attire with
characteristic full trousers. The coins of Vonones have a
type similar, but complicated by the addition of a third
figure.
( Parthian captives sitting under a Roman trophy,
i Coin of Trajan, 116 a,d.
In Greek and Roman art the Parthian appears, not as
victor, but as vanquished. The coins of Trajan show two
Parthian captives, a man and a woman, under a trophy of
Roman victory. St. John describes the Parthian king as
seen by Roman apprehension, followed by Bloodshed,
Scarcity and Death ; but that point of view was naturally
alien to art, except the art practised in Parthia. The
spirit of the artist, or of the seer of the visions, gives form
to the pictures, and they must be interpreted by the spirit.
62 VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
As to the letters, we notice that there are two pairs of
ideas mentioned in i. 20, "the seven stars are the angels
of the Seven Churches; and the seven lamps are Seven
Churches". Of these, the second pair stand on the earth ;
and in the first pair, since the stars belong to heaven, the
angels also must belong to heaven. There is the earthly
pair, the Churches and the lamps that symbolise them ;
and there is the corresponding heavenly pair, the angels
and the stars which symbolise them.
A similar correspondence between a higher and a lower
embodiment of Divine character may frequently be observed
in the current religious conceptions of that time. We find
amid the religious monuments of Asia Minor certain reliefs,
which seem to represent the Divine nature on two planes,
expressed by the device of two zones in the artistic group-
ing. There is an upper zone showing the Divine nature on
the higher, what may be called the heavenly plane ; and
there is a lower zone, in which the God is represented as
appearing, under the form of his priest and representative,
among the worshippers who come to him on earth, to
whom he reveals the right way of approaching him and
serving him, and whom he benefits in return for their ser-
vice and offering duly completed. One of the best ex-
amples of this class of monuments, dated a.d. 100, and
belonging to the circuit of Philadelphia, is published here
for the first time^ after a sketch made by Mrs. Ramsay in
1884. The lower zone is a scene representing, according to
a type frequent in late art, an ordinary act of public worship.
At the right hand side of an altar, which stands under the
sacred tree, a priest is performing on the altar the rite by
means of which the worshippers are brought into communi-
cation with the God. The priest turns towards the left to
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
63
face the altar, and behind him are five figures in an attitude
nearly uniform (the position of the left hand alone varies
slightly), who must represent the rest of the college of
priests attached to the sanctuary. Their names are given
in the inscription vi^hich is engraved under the relief. There
was always a college of priests, often in considerable num-
bers, attached to the great sanctuaries or hiera of Anatolia ;
s
s
yy\
r^^
^
»
%
(Ti
~^W
\^
p
1'
m
Wjl
r\
^
^
s
it
V t-v
rtrs
Fig. 4. — The sacrifice on earth and in heaven : relief from Koloe in Lydia.
those priests must be distinguished from the attendants,
ministers, and inferiors, of whom there were large numbers
(in some cases several thousands).
The existence of such colleges gives special importance
to the Bezan text of Acts xiv. 13, in which the priests of .the
shrine of Zeus "Before-the-City," at Lystra, are mentioned
— whereas the accepted text mentions only a single priest.
64 VI. The Symholism of the Seven Letters
Professor Blass in his note rejects the Bezan reading on
the ground that there was only one priest for each temple ;
but his argument is founded on purely Greek custom and
is not correct for Anatolian temples, like the one at Lystra,
where there was always a body or college of priests. In
the relief which we are now studying the mutilation of the
inscription makes the number of the priests uncertain ; but
either seven or eight were mentioned. At the Milyadic
hieron of the same God, Zeus Sabazios, the college num-
bered six: at Pessinus the college attached to the hieron
of the Great Mother contained at least ten.2
On the left side of the altar stand seven figures looking
towards the altar and the priest. These represent the
crowd of worshippers.
In the upper zone the central action corresponds exactly
to the scene in the lower zone: the god stands on a raised
platform on the right hand side of an altar, on which he
performs the same act of ritual which his priest is perform-
ing straight below him on the lower plane, probably pouring
out a libation over oflferings which lie on the altar. In
numerous reliefs and coins of Asia Minor a god or goddess
is represented performing the same act over an altar. That
one act stands symbolically for the whole series of ritual
acts, just as in Rev. ii. 13 Antipas stands for the entire body
of the martyrs who had suffered in Asia. The deity has
revealed to men the ritual whereby they can approach him
in purity, and present their gifts and prayers with assurance
that these will be favourably received: thus the god is his
own first priest, and later priests were regarded by the
devout as representatives of the god on earth, wearing his
dress, acting for him and performing before his worshippers
on earth the life and actions of the god on his loftier plane
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters 65
of existence.^ In this relief the intention is obviou'5 : as a
sign and guarantee that he accepts the sacred rite, the god
is doing in heaven exactly the same act that his priest is
performing on eaith.
On the right of the raised platform stand three figures,
with the right hand raised in adoration. These represent
the college of priests, headed by the chief priest ; and all
must be understood to make the same gesture, though the
right hands of the second and third are hidden. The action
of the priests who stand in the lower zone behind the chief
priest must be interpreted in the same way. The gesture
of adoration is illustrated by the figures on pp. 285, 319.
On the left of the platform another scene in the ritual
and life of the god is represented. He drives forth in his
car to make his annual progress through his own land to
receive the homage of his people. He is marked as Zeus
by the eagle which sits on the reins or the trappings of the
horses, and as Sabazios by the serpent on the ground be-
neath their feet. Beside the horses walks his compan on
god, regarded as his son in the divine genealogy, and
marked as Hermes by the winged caduceus which he carries,
and as Men by the crescent and the pointed Phrygian cap.
The divine nature regarded as male was commonly con-
ceived in this double form as father and son ; and when
these Anatolian ideas were expressed under Greek forms
and names, they were described sometimes as Zeus and
Hermes (so in Acts xiv. 10, and in this relief), sometimes
as Zeus and Apollo or Dionysus. When the deity in his
male character was conceived as a single impersonation,
he was called in Greek sometimes by one, sometimes by
another of those four names. The Greek names were used
in this loose varying way, because none of them exactly
66 VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
corresponded to the nature of the Anatolian conception ;
and sometimes one name, sometimes another, seemed to
correspond best to the special aspect of the Anatolian god
which was prominent at the moment.
The god on the car is here represented as beardless, but
the god on the platform is beai ded ; and yet the two are
presentments of the same divine power. But this relief is
a work of symbolism, not a work of art : it aims not at
artistic or dramatic truth, but at showing the divine nature
in two of the characters under which it reveals itself to man :
the object of the artist was to express a meaning, not to
arrive at beauty or consistency.
The interpretation which has just been stated of this
symbolical relief would be fairly certain from the analogy
of other monuments of the same class ; but it is placed
beyond doubt by the inscription which occupies the broad
lower zone of the stone: "in the year 185 (A.D. lOO-ioi),
the thirtieth of Daisios (22nd May), when Glykon was
Stephanephoros, the people of Koloe consecrated Zeus
Sabazios, the priests being Apollonius," etc. (probably
seven others were named ^
The people consecrated Zeus Sabazios either by building
him a temple, or simply by erecting a statue in his honour :
in either case the action was a stage in the gradual Hellen-
ising of an Anatolian cult in outward show by making it
more anthropomorphic. The original Anatolian religion
was much less anthropomorphic ; it had holy places rather
than temples, and worshipped " the God " rather than indi-
vidualised and specialised embodiments of him.* Under
the influence of Greek and other foreign examples, temples
and statues were introduced into that simple old religion.
It is impossible to get back to a stage in which it was
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters 6y
entirely imageless and without built temples ; but certainly
in its earlier stages images and temples played a much
smaller part than in the later period.
The symbolism of this monument is so instructive with
regard to the popular religious views in Anatolia that a de-
tailed study of it forms the best introduction to this subject.
The monument is now built into the inner wall of a house
at Koula, a considerable town in Eastern Lydia ; but it was
brought there from a place about twenty-five miles to the
north. It originates therefore from a secluded part of the
country, where Anatolian religious ideas were only beginning
to put on an outward gloss of Hellenism, though their real
character was purely Asian. Greek however was the lan-
guage of the district.
It is fundamentally the same idea of a higher and a lower
plane of existence that is expressed in the symbolism of
the Angels and the Stars in heaven, corresponding to the
Churches and the Lamps on earth. The lamp, which
represents the Church, is a natural and obvious symbol.
The Church is Divine : it is the kingdom of God among
men : in it shines the light that illumines the darkness of
the world.
The heavenly pair is more difficult to express precisely
in its relation to the earthly pair. There seems to be
involved here a conception, common in ancient time gen-
erally, that there are intermediate grades of existence to
bridge over the vast gap between the pure Divine nature
and the earthly manifestation of it. Thus the star and
the angel, of whom the star is the symbol, are the inter-
mediate stage between Christ and His Church with its
lamp shining in the world. This symbolism was taken
over by St. John from the traditional forms of expression
63 VI. The Symbolism of the Sevc?i Letters
in theories regarding the Divine nature and its relation
to the world.
Again, we observe that, in the reh'gious symbolic language
of the first century, a star denoted the heavenly existence
corresponding to a divine being or divine creation or exist-
ence located on earth. Thus, in the language of the Roman
poets, the divine figure of the Emperor on earth has a star
in heaven that corresponds to it and is its heavenly counter-
part So the Imperial family as a whole is also said to
have its star, or to be a star. It is a step towards this kind
of symbolic phraseology when Horace {Odes, i., 12) speaks
of the Julian star shining like the moon amid the lesser fires;
but probably Horace was hardly conscious of having ad-
vanced in this expression beyond the limits of mere poetic
metaphor. But when Domitian bu It a Temple of the Im-
perial Flavian family, the poet Statins describes him as
placing the stars of his family (the Flavian) in a new heaven
{Silv(Z, v., I, 240 f.). There is implied here a similar con-
ception to that which we are studying in the Revelation :
the new Temple on earth corresponds to a new heaven
framed to contain the new stars ; the divine Emperors of
the Flavian family (along with any other member of the
family who had been formally deified) are the earthly ex-
istences dwelling in the new Temple, as the stars, their
heavenly counterparts, move in the new heaven. The
parallel is close, however widely separate the theological
ideals are ; and the date of Statius's poem is about the
last year of Domitian's reign, A.D. 95-96.
The star, then, is obviously the heavenly object which
corresponds to the lamp shining on the earth, though
superior in character and purity to it ; and, as the lamp
on earth is to the star in heaven, so is the Church on
The Syvibolisjn of the Seven Letters 69
earth to the angel. Such is the relation clearly indicated.
The angel is a corresponding existence on another and
higher plane, but mo'.e pure in essence, more closely as-
sociated with the Divine nature than the individual Church
on earth can be.
Now, what is the angel ? How shall he be defined or
described ? In answer to this question, then, one must
attempt to describe what is meant by the angels of the
Churches in these chapters, although as soon as the de-
scription is written, one recognises that it is inadequate
and hardly correct. The angel of the Church seems to
embod}'and gather together in a personification the powers,
the character, the history and life and unity of the Church.
The angel represents the Divine presence and the Divine
power in the Church ; he is the Divine guarantee of the
vitality and effectiveness of the Church.
This seems clear ; but the dif^culty begins when we ask
what is the relation of the angel to the faults and sins of
his Church, and, above all, to the punishment which awaits
and is denounced against those sins. The Church in
Smyrna or in Ephesus suffers from the faults and weak-
nesses of the men who compose it : it is guilty of their
crimes, and it will be punished in their person. Is the
angel, too, guilty of the sins ? Is he to bear the punish-
ment for tliem ?
Undoubtedly the angel is touched and affected by the
sins of his Church. Nothing else is conceivable. He could
not be the counterpart or the double of a Church, unless he
was affected in some way by its failings. But the angels
of the Churches are addressed, not simply as touched by
their faults, but as guilty of them. Most of the angels
have been guilty of serious, even deadly sins. The angel
7o VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
of Sardis is dead, though he has the name of being alive.
The angel of Laodicea is lukewarm and spiritless, and shall
be rejected. Threats, also, are directed against the angels :
" I will come against thee," " 1 will spit thee out of my
mouth," " I will come to thee " (or rather " I will come in
displeasure at thee" is the more exact meaning, as Professor
Moulton points out). Again, the angel is regarded as re-
sponsible for any neglect of the warning now given, " and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" :
" thou art the wretched one, and poor, and miserable, and
blind, and naked ".
These expressions seem to make it clear that the angel
could be guilty, and must suffer punishment for his guilt.
This is certainly surprising, and, moreover, it is altogether
inconsistent with our previous conclusion that the angel is
the heavenly counterpart of the Church. He who is guilty
and responsible for guilt cannot stand anywhere except on
the earth.
The inconsistency, however, is due to the inevitable failure
of the writer fully to carry out the symbolism. It is not so
difficult to follow out an allegory perfectly, so long as the
writer confines himself to the realm of pure fancy ; but, if he
comes into the sphere of reality and fact, he soon finds that
the allegory cannot be wrought out completely ; it will not
fit the details of life. When John addresses the angels as
guilty, he is no longer thinking of them, but of the actual
Churches which he knew on earth. The symbolism was
complicated and artificial ; and, when he began to write
the actual letters, he began to feel that he was addressing
the actual Churches, and the symbolism dropped from him
in great degree. Nominally he addresses the Angel, but
really he writes to the Church of Ephesus or of Sardis ; or
The Symbolism of the Seven Letters yi
rather, all distinction between the Church and its angel
vanishes from his mind. He comes into direct contact with
real life, and thinks no longer of correctness in the use of
symbols and in keeping up the elaborate and rather awk-
ward allegory. He writes naturally, directly, unfettered by
symbolical consistency.
The symbolism was imposed on the writer of the Apo-
calypse by the rather crude literary model, which he
imitated in obedience to a prevalent Jewish fashion. He
followed his model very faitiifully, so much so that his
work has by some been regarded as a purely Jewish original,
slightly modified by additions and interpolations to a
Christian character, but restorable to its original Jewish
form by simple excision of a few words and paragraphs.
But we regard the Jewish element in it as traditional, due
to the strong hold which this established form of literature
exerted on the author. That element only fettered and
impeded him by its fanciful and unreal character, making
his work seem far more Jewish than it really is. Some-
times, however, the traditional form proves wholly inade-
quate to express his thoughts ; and he discards it for the
moment and speaks freely.
It is therefore vain to attempt to give a rigidly accurate
definition of the meaning which is attached to the term
" angel " in these chapters. All that concerns the angels
is vague, impalpable, elusive, defying analysis and scientific
precision. You cannot tell where in the Seven Letters,
taken one by one, the idea "angel" drops and the idea
"Church" takes its place. You cannot feel certain what
characteristics in the Seven Letters may be regarded as
applying to the angels, and what must be separated from
them. But the vague description given in preceding para-
72 VI. The Symbolism of the Seven Letters
graphs viri be sufficient for use ; and it may be made
clearer by quoting Professor J. H. Moulton's description of
angels : " Spiritual counterparts of human individuals or
communities, dwelling in heaven, but subject to changes
depending on the good or evil behaviour of their comple-
mentary beings on earth ".*
How far did St. John, in employing the symbolism
current at the time, accept and approve it as a correct
statement of truth ? That question naturally arises ; but
the answer seems inevitable. He regards this symbolism
merely as a way of making spiritual ideas intelligible to
the ordinary human mind, after the fashion of the parables
in the life of Christ He was under the influence of the
common and accepted ways of expressing spiritual, or
philosophical, or theological truth, just as he was under
the influence of fashionable forms in literature. He took
these and made the best he could of them. The apoca-
lyp'ic form of literature was far from being a high one ;
and the Apocalypse of John suffers from the unfortunate
choice of this form : only occasionally is the author able
to free himself from the chilling influence of that fanciful
and extravagant mode of expression. The marked differ-
ence in character and power between the Apocalypse and
the Gospel of St. John is in great measure due to the poor
models which he followed in the former.
It is interest ng that one of the most fashionable methods
of expressing highl}/ generalised truths or principles — the
genealogical method ^ — is never employed by John (except
in the universally accepted phrases, " son of man," " Son of
God "). The contempt expressed by Paul for the " fables
and endless genealogies " of current philosophy and science
seems to have been shared by most of the Christian writers ;
The Symbolism of the Seven Lett^^s 73
and it is true that ro form of veiling ignorance bv a show of
words was ever invented more dangerous and m* re tempt-
ing than the genealogical. An example of the gc.ealogical
method may be found in Addison's 35th Spectato*^ an imi-
tation of the old form, but humorous instead of pe'*'*i'iitic.
CHAPTER VII.
AUTHORITY OF THE WRITER OF THE SEVEN LETTERS.
In what relation did the writer of the Seven Letters stand
to the Asian Churches which he addressed? This is an
important question. The whole spirit of the early develop-
ment of law and procedure and administration in the early
Church is involved in the answer. That the writer shows
so intimate a knowledge of those Churches that he must
have lived long among them, will be proved by a detailed
examination of the Seven Letters, and may for the present
be assumed. But the question is whether he addressed the
Churches simply as one who lived among them and knew
their needs and want, who was qualified by wisdom and
age and experience, and who therefore voluntarily offered
advice and warning, which had its justification in its excel-
lence and truth ; or whether he wrote as one standing in
something like an offic al and authoritative relation to them,
charged with the duty of guiding, correcting and advising
those Asian Churches, feeling himself directly responsible
for their good conduct and welfare.
The question also arises whether he was merely a prophet
according to the old conception of the prophetic mission,
coming, as it were, forth from the desert or the field to
deliver the message which was dictated to him by God,
and on which his own personality and character and know-
ledge exercised no formative influence ; or whether the
(74)
Authority of the Writer of the Seven Letters 75
message is full of his own nature, but his nature raised to
its highest possible level through that sympathy and com-
munion with the Divine will, which constitutes, in the truest
and fullest sense, "inspiration ". The first of these alterna-
tives we state only to dismiss it as bearing its inadequacy
plainly written on its face. The second alone can satisfy
us ; and we study the Seven Letters on the theory that
they are as truly and completely indicative of the writer's
character and of his personal relation to his correspondents
as nny letters of the humblest person can be.
Probably the most striking feature of the Seven Letters
is the tone of unhesitating and unlimited authority which
inspires them from beginning to end. The best way to
realise this tone and all that it means is to compare them
with other early Christian letters : this will show by con-
trast how supremely authoritative is the tone of the Seven
Letters.
The letter of Clement to the Church of Corinth is not
expressed as his own (though undoubtedly, and by general
acknowledgment, it is his letter, expressing his sentiments
regarding the Corinthians), but as the letter of the Roman
Church. All assumption or appearance of personal author-
ity is carefull}^ avoided. The warning and advice are ad-
dressed by the Romans as authors, not to the Corinthians
only, but equally to the Romans themselves. " These
things we write, not merely as admonishing you, but also
as reminding ourselves," § j} The first person plural is
very often used in giving advice : ** let us set before our-
selves the noble examples," § 5 ; and so on in many
other cases. Rebuke, on the other hand, is often expressed
in general terms. Thus, e.g., a long panegyric on the Co-
rinthians in § 2 : " Ye had conflict day and night for all
"jd VII. Authority of
the brotherhood. . . . Ye were sincere and simple and free
from malice one towards another. Every sedition and
every schism was abominable to you, etc.," is concluded in
§ 3 with a rebuke and admonition couched in far less
direct terms: "that which is written was fulfilled ; my be-
loved ate and drank, and was enlarged and waxed fat and
kicked ; hence come jealousy and envy, strife and sedition,
etc.". The panegyric is expressed in the second person
plural, but the blame at the end is in this general imper-
sonal form.
A good example of this way of expressing blame in
perfectly general, yet quite unmistakable, terms is found
in § 44. Here the Corinthians are blamed for having de-
posed certain bishops or presbyters ; but the second per-
sonal form is never used. " Those who M'ere duly appointed
. . . these men we consider to be unjustly thrust out from
their ministration. For it will be no light sin for us if we
thrust out those who have offered the gifts of the bishop's
office unblamably and holily." It would be impossible to
express criticism of the conduct of others in more courteous
and modest form, and yet it is all the more effective on that
account : " if we do this, we shall incur grievous sin ".
The most strongly and directly expressed censure is found
in § 47. It is entirely in the second person plural ; but
here the Romans shelter themselves behind the authority
of Paul, who " charged you in the Spirit . . . because even
then ye had made parties". On this authority the direct
address continues to the end of the chapter : " it is shameful,
dearly beloved, yes, utterly shameful and unworthy of your
conduct in Christ, thnt it should be reported that the very
steadfast and ancient Church of the Corinthians, for the sake
of one or two persons, maketh sedition against its presbyters,
The Writer of the Seven Letters 77
etc. ". But the next sentence resumes the modest form :
" let us therefore root this out quickly ".
An example equally good is found in the letters of
Ignatius ; and this example is even more instructive than
that of Clement, because Ignatius's letters were addressed
to several of the Seven Churches not many years after the
Revelation was written. Here we have letters written by
the Bishop of Antioch, the mother Church of all the Asian
Churches, and by him when raised through the near ap-
proach of death to a plane higher than mere humanity.
He was already marked out for death — in the estimation
of Christians the most honourable kind of death — as the
representative of his Church ; and he was on his way to
the place of execution. He was eager to gain the crown
of life. He had done with all thought of earth. If there
was any one who could speak authoritatively to the Asian
Churches, it was their Syrian mother through this chosen
representative. But there is not, in any of his' letters,
anything approaching, even in the remotest degree, to the
authoritative tone of John's letters to the Seven Churches,
or of Paul's letters, or of Peter's letter to the Churches of
Anatolia.
The Ephesians especially are addressed by Ignatius with
profound respect. He ought to "be trained by them for
the contest in faith," § 3. He hopes to " be found in the
company of the Christians of Ephesus," § 11. He is
"devoted to them and their representatives," § 21. He
apologises for seeming to offer advice to them, who should
be his teachers ; but they may be schoolfellows together
— a touch which recalls the tone of Clement's letter ; he
does not give orders to them, as though he were of some
consequence, § 3. The tone throughout is that of one
78 VII. Atithority of
who feels deeply that he is honoured in associating with
the Ephesian Church through its envoys.
There is not the same tone of extreme respect in Igna-
tius's letters to Magnesia, Tralleis, Philadelphia, and Smyrna,
as in his letter to Ephesus. It is apparent that the Syrian
bishop regarded Ephesus as occupying a position of loftier
dignity than the other Churches of the Province ; and this
is an important fact in itself It proves that already there
was the beginning of a feeling, in some minds at least, that
the Church of the leading city of a Province ^ was of higher
dignity than those of the other cities, a feeling which ulti-
mately grew into the recognition of metropolitan bishoprics
and exarchates, and a fully formed and graded hierarchy.
But even to those Churches of less splendid history, his
tone is not that of authority. It is true that he sometimes
uses the imperative ; but in the more simple language of
the Eastern peoples, as in modern Greek and Turkish (at
least in the conversational style), the imperative mood is
often used, without any idea of command, by an inferior
to a superior, or by equal to equal ; and in such cases
it expresses no more than extreme urgency. In Magn. §
3 the tone is one of urgent reasoning, and Lightfoot in
his commentary rightly paraphrases the imperative of the
Greek by the phrase " I exhort you". In § 6 the impera-
tive is represented in Lightfoot's translation by " I advise
you". In § lo the advice is expressed in the first person
plural (a form which we found to be characteristic of
Clement), " let us learn to live," " let us not be insensible
to His goodness". Then follows in § ii an apology for
even advising his correspondents, " not because I have
learned that any of you are so minded, but as one inferior
to you, I would have you be on your guard betimes ".
The Writer of the Seven Letters 79
When in Trail. § 3 he is tempted to use the language of
reproof, he refrains : " I did not think myself competent
for this, that being a convict I should give orders to you as
though I were an Apostle ".^
It is needless to multiply examples. The tone of the
letters is the same throughout. Ignatius has not the right,
like Paul or Peter or an Apostle, to issue commands to the
Asian Churches. He can only advise, and exhort, and
reason — in the most urgent terms, but as an equal to
equals, as man to men, or, as he modestly puts it, as inferior
to superiors. He has just the same right and duty that
every Christian has of interesting himself in the life of all
other Christians, of advising and admonishing and entreat-
ing them to take the course which he knows to be right.
The best expression of his attitude towards his corre-
spondents is contained in a sentence which he addresses
to the Romans, § 9, in which he contrasts his relation to
them with the authority that belonged to the Apostles :
" I do not give orders to you, as Peter and Paul did : they
were Apostles, I am a convict : they were free, but I am a
slave to this very hour ".^
But John writes in an utterly different spirit, with the
tone of absolute authority. He carries this tone to an
extreme far beyond that even of the other Apostles, Paul
and Peter, in writing to the Asian Churches. Paul writes
as their father and teacher : authority is stamped on every
sentence of his letters. Peter reviews their circumstances
points out the proper line of conduct in various situations
and relations, addresses them in classes — the officials and
the general congregation — in a tone of authority and re-
sponsibility throughout : he writes because he feels bound
to prepare them in view of coming trials.
8o VII. Authority of
St. John expresses the Divine voice with absolute author-
ity of spiritual life and death in the present and the future.
Such a tone cannot be, and probably hardly ever has been,
certainly is not now by any scholar, regarded as the result
of mere assumption and pretence. Who can imagine as
a possibility of human nature that one who can think the
thoughts expressed in these letters could pretend to such
authority either as a fanciful dreamer deluding himself or
as an actual impostor ? Such suggestions would be unreal
and inconceivable.
It is a psychological impossibility that these Letters to
the Asian Churches could have been written except by
one who felt himself, and had the right to feel himself,
charged with the superintendence and oversight of all those
Churches, invested with Divinely given and absolute au-
thority over them, gifted by long knowledge and sympathy
with insight unto their nature and circumstances, able
to understand the line on which each was developing, and
finally bringing to a focus in one moment of supreme
inspiration — whose manner none but himself could under-
stand or imagine — all the powers he possessed of know-
ledge, of intellect, of intensest love, of gravest responsibility
of sympathy with the Divine life, of commission from his
Divine Teacher.
Moreover, when we consider how sternly St. Paul de-
nounced and resented any interference from any quarter,
however influential, with the conduct of his Churches, and
how carefully he explained and apologised for his own in-
tention of visiting Rome, that he might not seem to " build
on another's foundation,"* and again when we take into
consideration the constructive capacity of the early Church
and all that is implied therein, we must conclude that St.
The Writer of the Seven Letters 8i
John's authority was necessarily connected with his publicly
recognised position as the head of those Asian Churches,
and did not arise merely from his general commission as an
Apostle.
In a word, we must recognise the authoritative succession
in the Asian Churches of those three writers : first and
earliest him who speaks in the Pauline letters ; secondly,
him who wrote " to the Elect who are sojourners of the
Dispersion in . . . Asia " and the other Provinces ; lastly,
the author of the Seven Letters.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EDUCATION OF ST. JOHN IN PATMOS.
Closely related to this authority claimed and exercised
by the writer of the Apocalypse over the Church — so closely
related that it is merely another aspect of that authority —
is the claim which he makes to speak in the name of Christ.
He writes in a book what he has seen and heard. The
words of the letter are given him to set down. It is the
Divine Head of the Church Himself, from whom all the
letters and the book as a whole originate. The writer is
distinguished from the Author ; though the distinction is
not to be regarded as carried through the book with un-
broken regularity, and must not be pressed too closely.
The one 'dea melts into the other with that elusive in-
definiteness which characterises the book as a whole.
On his credentials as a legate or messenger is founded
the authority which the writer exercises over the Church.
Over the Church God alone has authority ; and no man may
demand its obedience except in so far as he has been
directly commissioned by God to speak. Only the mes-
senger of God has any right to obedience : other men can
only offer advice.
Let us try to understand this attitude and this claim by
first of all understanding more clearly the situation in
which the writer was placed, and the circumstances in
which the work originated. Only in that way can the
The Education of St. John in Patmos %2>
problem be fairly approached. It may prove insoluble.
In a sense it must prove insoluble. At the best we cannot
hope to do more than state the conditions and the diffi-
culties clearly in a form suited to the mind and thoughts
of our own time. But a clear understanding of the diffi-
culties involved is a step towards the solution. The solution
however must be reached by every one for himself: it is a
matter for the individual mind, and depends on the degree
to which the individual can even in a dim vague way com-
prehend the mind of St. John. It involves the personal
element, personal experience and personal opinion ; and he
who tries to express the solution is exposed to subjectivity
and error. The solution is to be lived rather than spoken.
St. John had been banished to Patmos, an unimportant
islet, whose condition in ancient times is little known.
In the Imperial period banishment to one of the small
rocky islands of the ^gean was a common and recognised
penalty, corresponding in some respects (though only in a
very rough way and with many serious differences) to the
former English punishment of transportation. It carried
with it entire loss of civil rights and almost entire loss of
property ; usually a small allowance was reserved to sustain
the exile's life. The penalty was life-long ; it ended only
with death. The exile was allowed to live in free inter-
course with the people of the island, and to earn money.
But he could not inherit money nor bequeath his own, if
he saved or earned any : all that he had passed to the
State at his death. He was cut off from the outer world,
though he was not treated with personal cruelty or con-
straint within the limits of the islet, where he was confined.*
But there are serious difficulties forbidding the supposi-
tion that St Joh 1 was banished to Patmos in this way.
84 VIII. The Education of
In the first place this punishment was reserved for persons
of good standing and some wealth. Now it seems utterly
impossible to admit that St. John could have belonged to
that class. In Ephesus he was an obscure stranger of
Jewish origin ; and under the Flavian Emperors the Jews
of Palestine were specially open to suspicion on account
of the recent rebellion. There is no evidence, and no prob-
ability, that he possessed either the birth, or the property,
or the civic rights, entitling him to be treated on this more
favoured footing. He was one of the common people,
whose punishment was more summary and far harsher
than simple banishment to an island.
In the second place, even if he had been of sufficiently
high standing for that form of punishment, it is impossible
to suppose that the crime of Christianity could have been
punished so leniently at that period. If it was a crime
at all, it belonged to a very serious class ; and milder
treatment is unknown as a punishment for it,^ In its
first stages, before it was regarded as a crime, some Chris-
tians were subjected to comparatively mild penalties, like
scourging ; but in such cases they were punished, not for
the crime of Christianity, not for " the name," but for other
offences, such as causing disorder in the streets. But St.
John was in Patmos for the word of God and the testimony
of fesus, partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom
and patience which are in fesus. His punishment took place
at a time when the penalty for Christianity was already
fixed as death in the severer form {i.e. fire, crucifixion, or
as a public spectacle at games and festivals) for persons
of humbler position and provincials, and simple execution
for Roman citizens. Nor is it possible to suppose that St.
John was banished at an early stage in the persecution,
S^. John in Patmos 85
before the procedure was fully comprehended and strictly
carried out. The tradition that connects his punishment
with Domitian is too strong.
The conclusion seems inevitable : St. John was not pun-
ished with the recognised Roman penalty of banishment
to an island {deportatio in insulani) : the exile to Patmos
must have been some kind of punishment of a more serious
character.
There was such a penalty. Banishment combined with
hard labour for life was one of the grave penalties. Many
Christians were punished in that way. It was a penalty
for humbler criminals, provincials and slaves. It was in its
worst forms a terrible fate : like the death penalty it was
preceded by scourging, and it was marked by perpetual
fetters, scanty clothing, insufficient food, sleep on the bare
ground in a dark prison, and work under the lash of military
overseers.^ It is an unavoidable conclusion that this was
St. John's punishment. Patmos is not elsewhere mentioned
as one of the places where convicts of this class were sent ;
but we know very little about the details and places of this
penalty ; and the case of St. John is sufficient proof that such
criminals were in some cases sent there. There were no
mines in Patmos. Whether any quarries were worked there
might be determined by careful exploration of the islet.
Here, as everywhere in the New Testament, one is met by
the difficulty of insufficient knowledge. In many cases it
is impossible to speak confidently, where a little explora-
tion by a competent traveller would probably give cei tainty.
Undoubtedly, there were many forms of hard labour
under the Roman rule, and these varied in degree, some
being worse than others. We might wish to think that in
his exile St. John had a mild type of punishment to under-
86 VIII. The Education of
go, which permitted more leisure and more ease ; but would
any milder penalty be suitable to the language of i. 9,
your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation? It
is possible perhaps to explain those words as used by an
exile, though subjected only to the milder penalty inflicted
on persons of rank. But how much more meaning and
effect they carry, when the penalties of both parties are of
the same severe character. Now it is a safe rule to follow,
that the language of the New Testament is rarely, if ever,
to be estimated on the lower scale of effectiveness. The in-
terpretation which gives most power and meaning is the
right one. St. John wrote to the Churches in those words
of i. 9, because he was suffering in the same degree as
themselves.
Banished to Patmos, St. John was dead to the world ;
he could not learn much about what was going on in the
Empire and in the Province Asia. It would be difficult
for him to write his Vision in a book, and still more difficult
to send it to the Churches when it was written. He could
exercise no charge of his Churches. He could only think
about them, and see in the heavens the process of their
fate. He stood on the sand of the seashore, and saw the
Beast rise from the sea and come to the land of Asia ; and
he saw the battle waged and the victory won. Just as the
Roman supreme magistrate or general was competent to
read in the sky the signs of the Divine will regarding the
city or the army entrusted to his charge, so St. John could
read in the heavens the intimation of the fortunes and the
history of his Churches.
In passing, a remark on the text must be made here.
It is unfortunate that the Revisers departed from the read-
ing of the Authorised Version in xiii. i ; and attached the
5"/. John in Patmos 87
first words to the preceding chapter, understanding that
the Dragon " stood upon the sand of the sea ". Thus a
meaningless and unsuitable amplification — for where is
the point in saying that the Dragon waxed wroth with the
Woman, and went away to war with the rest of her seed;
and he stood upon the sand of the sea ? the history breaks
off properly with his going away to war against the saints
(the conclusion of that war being related in xix. 19-21),
whereas it halts and comes to a feeble stop, when he is left
standing on the sea-shore — was substituted for the bold
and effective personal detail, / stood upon the sand of the
shore of Patmos, and saw a Beast rise out of the sea.
St. John could see all this ; and through years of exile,
with rare opportunities of hearing what happened to his
Churches, he could remain calm, free from apprehension,
confident in their steadfastness on the whole and their
inevitable victory over the enemy. In that lonely time the
thoughts and habits of his youth came back to him, while
his recently acquired Hellenist habits were weakened in the
want of the nourishment supplied by constant intercourse
with Hellenes and Hellenists. His Hellenic development
ceased for the time. The head of the Hellenic Churches of
Asia was transformed into the Hebrew seer. Nothing but
the Oriental power of separating oneself from the world
and immersing oneself in the Divine could stand the strain
of that long vigil on the shore of Patmos. Nothing but a
Vision was possible for him ; and the Vision, full of Hebraic
imagery and the traces of late Hebrew literature which all
can see, yet also often penetrated with a Hellenist and
Hellenic spirit so subtle and delicate that {qw can appreciate
it, was slowly written down, and took form as the Revela-
tion of St. John.
88 VIII. The Education of
Most men succumb to such surroundings, and either die
or lose all human nature and sink to the level of the
beasts. A few can live through it, sustained by the hope
of escape and return to the world. But St. John rose above
that life of toil and hopeless misery, because he lived in the
Divine nature and had lost all thought of the facts of earth.
In that living death he found his true life, like many another
martyr of Christ. Who shall tell how far a man may rise
above earth, when he can rise superior to an environment
like that ? Who will set bounds to the growth of the human
soul, when it is separated from all worldly relations and
trammels, feeding on its own thoughts and the Divine
nature, and yet is filled not with anxiety about its poor
self, but with care, love and sympathy for those who have
been constituted its charge?
When he was thus separated from communication with
his Churches, St. John was already dead in some sense to
the world. The Apocalypse was to be, as it were, his last
testament, transmitted to the Asian Churches from his
seclusion when opportunity served, like a voice coming to
them from the other world.
Those who can with sure and easy hand mark out the
limits beyond which the soul of man can never go, will
be able to determine to their own satisfaction how far St,
John was mistaken, when he thought he heard the Divine
voice and listened to a message transmitted through him
to the Churches and to the Church as a whole. But those
who have not gauged so accurately and narrowly the range
of the human soul will not attempt the task. They will
recognise that there is in these letters a tone and a power
above the mere human level, and will confess that the
ordinary man is unable to keep pace with the movement
S^. John in Patmos 89
of this writer. It is admitted that the letters reveal to us
the character and the experiences of the writer, and that
they spring out of his own nature. But what was his
nature ? How far can man rise above the human level ?
How far can man understand the will and judgment of
God ? We lesser men who have not the omniscient con-
fidence of the critical pedant, do not presume to fix the
limits beyond which St. John could not go.
But we know that from the Apocalypse we have this gain,
at least. Through the study of it we are able in a vague
and dim way to understand how that long drawn-out living
death in Patmos was the necessary training through which
he must pass who should write the Fourth Gospel, In
no other way could man rise to that superhuman level, on
which the Fourth Gospel is pitched, and be able to gaze
with steady unwavering eyes on the eternal and the Divine
and to remain so unconscious of the ephemeral world.
And they who strive really to understand the education
of Patmos will be able to understand the strangest and
most apparently incredible fact about the New Testament,
how the John who is set before us in the Synoptic Gospels
could ever write the Fourth Gospel.
The Revelation, which was composed in the circum-
stances above described, must have been slow in taking
form. It was not the vision of a day ; it embodied the
contemplation aod the insight of years. But its point of
view is the moment when the Apostle was snatched from
the world and sent into banishment. After that he knew
nothing ; his living entombment began then ; and if the
Revelation is quoted as an historical authority about the
Province, its evidence applies only to the period which he
knew.
90 VIII. The Education of
At last there came the assassination of the tyrant, the
annulling of all his acts, and the strong reaction against
his whole policy. The Christians profited by this. The
persecution, though not first instituted by him, was closely
connected with his name and his ideas, and was discredited
and made unpopular by the association. For a time it was
in abeyance.
In particular, the exile pronounced against St. John
was apparently an act of the Emperor, and ceased to be
valid when his acts were declared invalid. The Apostle
was now free to return to Asia. He may have brought
the Apocalypse with him. More probably an opportunity
had been found of sending it already. But it reached the
Churches, and began to be effective among them, in the
latter part of Domitian's reign ; and hence Irenaeus says
it was written at that time. But while his account is to be
regarded as literally true, yet the composition was long and
slow, and the point of view is placed at the beginning of
the exile.
There grew up later the belief that his exile had only
been short ; and that he was banished about two years
before the end of Domitian's reign. But this seems to rest
on no early or good evidence : all that can be reckoned as
reasonably certain (so far as certainty can be predicated
of a time so remote and so obscure) is that St. John
was banished to Patmos and returned .at the death of
Domitian.
Antoninus Pius (138-161), indeed, laid down the rule
that criminals might be released from this penalty after
ten years on account of ill-health or old age, if relatives
took charge of them. But this amelioration cannot be
supposed to have been allowed in the Flavian time for an
5/. John in Patmos 91
obscure Christian. No other end for the punishment of
St. John seems possible except the fall of Domitian ; and
in that case he must have been exiled by Domitian, for if
he had been condemned by another Emperor, his fate would
not have been affected by the annulment of Domitian's
acts.
There arose also in that later time a misconception as to
the character of the Flavian persecution. It was regarded
as an act of Domitian alone, and was supposed to be, like
all the other persecutions except the last, a brief but intense
outburst of cruelty : this misconception took form before
the last persecution, and was determined by the analogy
of all the others.
But the Flavian persecution was not a temporary flaming
forth of cruelty : it was a steady, uniform application of
a deliberately chosen and unvarying policy, a policy arrived
at after careful consideration, and settled for the permanent
future conduct of the entire administration. It was to be
independent of circumstances and the inclination of indi-
viduals. The Christians were to be annihilated, as the
Druids had been ; and both those instances of intolerance
were due to the same cause, not religious but political, viz.^
the belief that each of them endangered the unity of the
Empire and the safety of the Imperial rule. Domitian was
not a mere capricious tyrant. He was an able, but gloomy
and suspicious, ruler. He applied with ruthless logic the
principle which had apparently been laid down by his
father Vespasian, and which was confirmed a few years later
by Trajan. But the more genial character of Vespasian
interfered in practice with the thorough execution of the
principle which he had laid down ; and the clear insight
of Trajan recognised that in carrying it out methods were
92 VIII. The Education of St. John in Patmos
required which would be inconsistent with the humaner
spirit of his age, and he forbade those excesses, while he
approved the principle. But the intellect of Domitian per-
ceived that the proscription of the Christians was simply
the application of the essential principles of Roman Im-
perialism, and no geniality or humanity prevented him from
putting it logically and thoroughly into execution. His
ability, his power to grasp general principles, and his
narrow intensity of nature in putting his principles into
action, may be gathered from his portrait, Fig. 5, taken
from one of his coins.
Fio. 5. — Domitian, the persecutor.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FLAVIAN PERSECUTION IN THE PROVINCE OF ASIA AS
DEPICTED IN THE APOCALYPSE.
The shadow of the Roman Empire broods over the whole
of the Apocalypse. Not merely are the Empire and the
Emperors and the Imperial city introduced explicitly and
by more or less clear descriptions among the figures that
bulk most largely in the Visions : an even more important,
though less apparent, feature of the book is that many
incidental expressions would be taken by the Asian readers
as referring to the Empire. Their minds were filled with
the greatness, the majesty, the all-powerful and irresistible
character of the Roman rule ; and, with this thought in their
minds, they inevitably interpreted every allusion to worldly
dignity and might as referring to Rome, unless it were at
the outset indicated by some marked feature as not Roman.
One such exception is the Horseman of vi. i, who rides forth
accompanied by Bloodshed, Scarcity and Death : he is
marked by the bow that he carries as the Parthian terror
(Figs. I, 3), which always loomed on the eastern horizon as
a possible source of invasion with its concomitant trials.
Those incidental allusions can be brought out only by a
detailed study and scrutiny of the Apocalypse, sentence by
sentence. But it will facilitate the understanding of the
Seven Letters to notice here briefly the chief figures under
which the power of Rome appears in the Apocalypse.
(93)
94 IX. The Flavian Persecution
Some of these are quite correctly explained by most
modern commentators ; but one at least is still rather
obscure. Almost every interpreter rightly explains the
Dragon of xii. 3 fif., the Beast of xiii. i ff., and the
Woman of xvii. 3 fif. ; but the monster in xiii. 18 ff. is
not quite properly explained, and this is the one that most
intimately concerns the purpose of the present work.
The Dragon of xii. i, the supreme power of evil, acts
through the force of the Empire, when he waited to devour
the child of the Woman ditvd persecuted the Woman and pro-
ceeded to make war on the rest of her seed ; and his heads
and his horns are the Imperial instruments by whom he
carries on war and persecution. The Beast of xiii. i, with
his ten diademed horns and the blasphemous names on
his seven heads, is the Imperial government with its dia-
demed Emperors and its temples dedicated to human
beings blasphemously styled by Divine names.
The Woman of xvii. i, sitting on a scarlet-coloured
beast with seven heads and ten horns and names of blas-
phemy, decked in splendour and lapped in luxury and
drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the
martyrs, is the Imperial city, which attracted to her al-
lurements and her pomp the kings of the nations, the rich
and distinguished men from all parts of the civilised world.
The term "kings" was commonly used in the social speech
of that period to indicate the wealthy and luxurious. The
kings of the client-states in Asia Minor and Syria, also,
visited Rome from time to time. Epiphanes of Cilicia
Tracheia was there in A.D. 69, and took part in the Civil
War on the side of Otho.
To Rome go the saints and the martyrs to be tormented,
that the woman and her guests may be amused on festivals
,/»
As depicted m the Apocalypse 95
and State occasions. She sits upon the Imperial monster,
the beast with its heads and its horns and its blasphemous
names and its purple or scarlet hue (for the ancient names
of colours pass into one another with little distinction), be-
cause Rome had been raised higher than ever before by the
Imperial government. Yet the same Beast and the ten
horns, by which she is exalted so high, sJiall hate her, and
shall viake her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,
and shall burn her utterly with fire : for the Emperors were
no true friends to Rome, they feared it, and therefore hated
it, curtailed its liberties, deprived it of all its power, mur-
dered its citizens and all its leading men, wished (like
Caligula) that the whole Roman People had one single
neck, and (like Nero) burned the city to the ground.
In a more veiled, and yet a clearly marked way the
Province Asia appears as a figure in the Vision. It must
be understood, however, what "the Province" was in the
Roman system and the popular conception. The Province
was not a tract of land subjected to Rome : as a definite
tract of the earth " Asia " originally had no existence
except in the sense of the whole vast continent, which is
still known under that name. A " Province " to the Roman
mind meant literally " a sphere of duty," and was an ad-
ministrative, not a geographical, fact : the Province of a
magistrate might be the stating of law in Rome, or the
superintendence of a great road, or the administration of
a region or district of the world ; but it was not and could
not be (except in a loose and derivative way) a tract of
country. From the Asian point of view the Province was
the aspect in which Rome manifested itself to the people
of Asia. Conversely, the Province was the form under
which the people of Asia constituted a part of the Empire.
96 IX. The Flavian Persecution
Rome appeared to the Asians in a double aspect, and so
the Province had a double character, i.e. two horns.
In the first place the Province of Asia was the entire
circle of administrative duties connected with that division
of the Empire, which stood before the minds of the people
of Asia (and among them of the writer of the Apocalypse)
as the whole body of officials, who conducted the adminis-
tration, especially the Senate in Rome acting through its
chosen agent on the spot, the individual Senator whom the
rest of the Senate delegated to represent it and to ad-
minister its power in Asia for the period of a year, residing
in official state as Proconsul in the capital or making his
official progress through the principal cities.
In the second place the Province was the whole circle
of religious duties and rites, which constituted the ideal
bond of unity holding the people of Asia together as a
part of the Imperial realm ; and this ritual was expressed
to the Asian mind by the representative priests, constitut-
ing the Commune (or, as it might almost be called, the
Parliament) of Asia : the one representative body that
spoke for the " Nation," i.e. the Province, Asia.
Again, the Province meant the status which a certain
body of persons and cities occupied in the Roman Empire.
They possessed certain privileges in the Empire, in virtue
of being provincials, and their rights and duties were deter-
mined by " the Law of the Province," which was drawn up
to regulate the admission of the Province in the Empire.
Thus, e.g., a Phrygian occupied a place in the Empire, not
as a Phrygian, but as an Asian or a Galatian (according as
he belonged to the Asian or the Galatian part of Phrygia).
A Phrygian was a member of a foreign conquered race.
An Asian or a Galatian was a unit in the Empire, with
As depicted in the Apocalypse 97
less privileges indeed than a Roman Citizen, but still
honoured with certain rights and duties. These rights
and duties were partly civil and partly religious : as an
Asian, he must both act and feel as part of the Empire —
he must do certain duties and feel certain emotions of
loyalty and patriotism — loyalty and patriotism were ex-
pressed through the Provincial religion, i.e. the State cult
of the majesty of Rome and of the Emperor, regulated by
the Commune.
The Province of Asia in its double aspect of civil and
religious administration, the Proconsul and the Commune,
is symbolised by the monster described xiii. 11. ff. This
monster had two horns corresponding to this double aspect ;
and it was like unto a Imnb^ for Asia was a peaceful
country, where no army was needed. Yet it spake as a
dragon^ for the power of Rome expressed itself quite as
sternly and haughtily, when it was unsupported by troops,
as it did when it spoke through the mouth of a general at
the head of an army.
The monster exerciseth all the authority of the first Beast
in his sight ; for the provincial administration exercised
the full authority of the Roman Empire, delegated to the
Proconsul for his year of office.
It maketh the earth and all that dwell therein to worship
the first Beast, for the provincial administration organised
the State religion of the Emperors. The Imperial regula-
tion that all loyal subjects must conform to the State
religion and take part in the Imperial ritual, was carried
out according to the regulations framed by the Commune,
which arranged the ritual, superintended and directed its
performance, ordered the building of temples, and the erec-
tion of statues, fixed the holidays and festivals, and so on —
98 IX. The Flavian Persecution
saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make
an image to the Beast.
At this point occurs a remarkable series of statements,
constituting the one contemporary account of the Flavian
persecution of the Christians in Asia. They are to the
effect that the Commune attempted to prove the truth and
power of the Imperial religion by means of miracles and
wonders : the monster " doeth great signs, that he should
even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in
the sight of men ; and he deceiveth them that dwell on the
earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in
the sight of the Beast ; saying to them that dwell on the earth
that they should make an image to the Beast. And it was
given him to give breath to the statue of the Beast, that the
statue of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many
as should not worship the statue of the Beast should be killed."
The last statement is familiar to us ; it is not directly
attested for the Flavian period by pagan authorities, but it
is proved by numerous Christian authorities, and corrobor-
ated by known historical facts, and by the interpretation
which Trajan stated about twenty-five years later of the
principles of Imperial procedure in this department. It is
s'mply the straightforward enunciation of the rule as to the
kind of trial that should be given to those who were ac-
cused of Christianity. The accused were required to prove
their loyalty by performing an act of religious worship of
the statue of the Emperor, which (as Pliny mentioned to
Trajan) was brought into court in readiness for the test : if
they performed the ritual, they were acquitted and dis-
missed : if they refused to perform it, they were condemned
to death. No other proof was sought ; no investigation
was made ; no accusation of any specific crime or misdeed
As depicted in the Apocalypse 99
was made, as had been the case in the persecution of Nero,
which is described by Tacitus. That short and simple pro-
cedure was legal, prescribed by Imperial instructions, and
complete.
No scholar now doubts that the account given in these
words of the Apocalypse represents quite accurately the
procedure in the Flavian persecution. Criticism for a time
attempted to discredit the unanimous Christian testimony,
because it was unsupp:)rted by dii'ect pagan testimony ;
and signally failed. The attempt is abandoned now.
Quite correct also is the statement that "the Province"
ordered the inhabitants of Asia to make a statue in honour
of the Beast. The Commune ordered the construction of
statues of the Imperial gods, and especially the statue of
the Divine Augustus in the temple at Pergamum.
But the other statements in this remarkable passage are
entirely uncorroborated : no even indirect evidence supports
them. It is nowhere said or hinted, except in this passage,
that the State cultus in Asia, the most civilised and edu-
cated part of the Empire, recommended itself by tricks and
pseudo-miracles, such as bringing down fire from heaven or
making the Imperial image speak. With regard to these
statements we are reduced to mere general presumptions
and estimate of probabilities.
Are we then to discredit them as inventions, or as mere
repetitions of traditional apocalyptic ideas and images, not
really applicable to this case ? By no means. This is the
one contemporary account that has been preserved of the
Flavian procedure : the one solitary account of the methods
practised then by the Commune in recommending and es-
tablishing the State religion. It is thoroughly uncritical to
accept from it two details, which are known from other
icx) IX. The Flavian Persecution
sources to be true, and to dismiss the rest as untrue, be-
cause they are neither corroborated nor contradicted by
other authorities. This account stands alone : there is no
other authority : it is corroborated indirectly in the main
facts. The accessory details, therefore, are probably true :
they are not entirely unlikely, though it is rather a shock to
us to find that such conduct is attributed to the Commune
in that highly civilised age — highly civilised in many re-
spects, but in some both decadent and barbarous.
It must, also, be remembered that the people of the
Province Asia were not all equally educated and civilised :
many of them had no Greek education, but were sunk in
ignorance and the grossest Oriental superstition. There
is no good reason apparent why this contemporary account
should be disbelieved ; and we must accept it.
The attempt was made under the authority of the Com-
mune, by one or more of its delegates in charge of the
various temples and the ritual practised at them, to impress
the populace with the might of the Imperial divinity by
showing signs and miracles, by causing fire to burst forth
without apparent cause, and declaring that it came down
from heaven, and by causing speech to seem to issue from
the statue in the temple. The writer accepts those signs
as having really occurred : the monster was permitted
by God to perform those marvels, and to delude men for
a time. None of the details which this contemporary
account mentions is incredible or even improbable. A
Roman Proconsul in Cyprus had a Magian as his friend
and teacher in science : the Magian probably showed him
the sign of spontaneous fire bursting forth at his orders.
In a Roman Colony at Philippi a ventriloquist, a slave girl,
earned large sums for her owners by fortune-telling (Acts
As depicted in the Apocalypse loi
xvi. 1 6). Why should we refuse to believe that ventrilo-
quism was employed in an Asian temple at this time of
excited feeling among both persecutors and persecuted?
It is not necessary to suppose that the Commune of
Asia encouraged and practised everywhere such methods.
It would be sufficient justification for the statements in
this passage, if the methods were practised by any of its
official representatives in any of the Asian temples of the
Imperial religion, without condemnation from the Com-
mune, There is no reason to think that the shrine of the
Sibyl at Thyatira^ was alien to such impostures, or that
the people in Ephesus, who were impressed by the magical
powers of the sons of Sceva (Acts xix. 13 f.) and duped
by other fraudulent exhibitors, were unlikely to be taken
in by such arts, when practised with official sanction.
That these marvels and signs were connected more par-
ticularly with one individual, and not so much with the
Commune as a body, is suggested by the only other
reference to them, viz. xix. 20, when the Beast and the
kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to
make war against Him that sat upon the horse and against
His army ; and the Beast was taken, and with him the
false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, where-
with he deceived them that had received the mark of the
Beast and them that worshipped his image. We must
understand that these words refer to some definite person,
who exercised great influence in some part of Asia and
was the leading spirit in performing the marvels and signs.
He is as real as the prophetess of Thyatira, ii. 20. He had
been prominent in deceiving the people for the benefit of
the Imperial government, and is associated with its ap-
proaching destruction. This association in ruin would be
I02 IX. The Flavian Persecution
all the more telling, if the prophet had visited Rome and
been received by some of the Flavian Emperors.
A personage like Apollonius of Tyana would suit well
the allusions in the Apocalypse. He lived and exercised
great influence in Asia, especially at Ephesus, where after
his death he enjoyed a special cult as " the averter of evil "
(Alexikakos), because he had taught the city how to free
itsell from a pestilence by detecting the human being under
whose form the disease was stalking about in their midst,
and putting to death the wretched old man on whom (like
an Afiican wizard smelling out the criminal) he fixed the
guilt.2
Apollonius enjoyed widely the reputation of a magician.
He had been well received in Rome, and was the friend of
Vespasian, Titus and Nerva. His biographer Philostratus
defends him from the charge of magic, but represents him
as a worker of signs and wonders ; and it must be remem-
bered that St. John does not regard the prophet as an im-
postor, but as one to whom // was given to perform marvels.
Philostratus, it is true, does not represent him as an up-
holder of the Imperial cultus, and rather emphasises his
opposition to Domitian ; but the aim of the biographer is
not to give an exact history of Apollonius as he was, but to
place an ideal picture before the eyes of the world. There
is every reason to think that a man like Apollonius would
use all his influence in favour of Vespasian and Titus, and
no reason to think that he would discountenance or be un-
willing to promote the Imperial cultus. While he was
opposed to Domitian, it does not appear that the mutual
dislike had come to a head early in the reign of that
Emperor, when according to our view the Apocalypse was
written, though Philostratus represents Apollonius as for
As depicted in the Apocalypse 103
seeing everything and knowing intuitively the character of
every man.
It seems, then, quite possible that Apollonius may actu-
ally be meant by this prophet associated with the Beast ;
but, even if that be not correct, yet it is certain that there were
other magicians and workers of wonders in the Asian cities ;
and it is in no way improbable that one of them may have
been employed as an agent, even as a high-priest, of the
Imperial religion. The over-stimulated, cultured yet morbid
society of the i;reat cities of Asia Minor furnished a fertile
soil for the development of such soothsayers, fortune-tellers
and dealers in magic: Lucian's account of Alexander of
Abonoteichos in Paphlagonia may be taken as a good ex-
ample in the second century. The existence of many such
impostors in the Province Asia during the first century is
attested, not merely by the passages already quoted from
the Acts, but also by an incident recorded by Philostratus
in the biogiaphy of Apollonius, vii., 41. The Asian cities
by the Hellespont, dreading the recurrence of earthquakes,
contributed ten talents to certain Egyptians and Chaldaeans
for a great sacrifice to avert the danger. Apollonius en-
countered and drove away the impostors — the circumsta ces
of the contest are not recorded — discovered the reason why
Earth and Sea were angry, offered the proper expiatory
sacrifices, averted the danger at a small expense, and the
earth stood fast'
The monster, who stands for the Province, is described
as coming up out of the earth. He is contrasted with the
Beast which came up out of the sea. They are thus de-
scribed as native and as foreign : the one belongs to the
same land as the readers of the Apocalypse, the other
comes from across the sea, and seems to rise out of the sea
I04 IX. The Flavian Persecution
as it comes. This form of expression was usual, both in
language and in art. Foreign products and manufactures
were described as " of the sea " (daXdara-ia) : we use " sea-
borne " in the same sense : the goddess who came in with
the Phoenicians, as patroness and protectress of the Sidonian
ships, was represented as "rising from the sea". Beings
Fig. 6. — The Earth-Goddess giving the child Erysichthon to Athena.
native to the country, or closely connected with the earth,
were represented in art as reclining on the ground (^.^.,
river- or mountain-gods, as in Fig. 20, p. 263), or emerging
with only half their figure out of the ground (as the goddess
of the earth in Fig. 6).
Thus the Beast was marked clearly to the readers as
As depicted in the Apocalypse 105
having a home beyond the sea, while the monster was
closely connected with their own soil, and had its home in
their own country.
The monster causeth ally the small and the great, and the
rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be
given them a mark on their right hand or upon their fore-
head; and that no man sJiould be able to buy or to sell, save
he that hath the mark, the name of the Beast or the nuviber
of his name.
This refers to some unknown, but (as will be shown) not
in itself improbable attempt, either through official regula-
tion or informal " boycott," to injure the Asian Christians
by preventing dealings with traders and shopkeepers who
had not proved their loyalty to the Emperor. That such
an attempt may have been made in the Flavian perse-
cution seems quite possible. It is not described here as
an Imperial, but only as a provincial regulation ; now it
is absolutely irreconcilable with the principles of Roman
administration that the Proconsul should have issued any
order of the kind except with Imperial authorisation ; there-
fore we must regard this as a recommendation originating
from the Commune of Asia. The Commune would have no
authority to issue a command or law ; but it might signalise
its devotion to the Emperor by recommending that the
disloyal should be discountenanced by the loyal, and that
all loyal subjects should try to restrict their custom to those
who were of proved loyalty. Such a recommendation
might be made by a devoted and courtly body like the
Commune ; and it was legal to do this, because all who
refused to engage in the public worship of the Emperors
were proscribed by Imperial act as traitors and outlaws,
possessing no rights.
io6 IX. The Flavian Persecution
Only some enactment of this kind seems adequate to
explain this remarkable statement of xiii. i6 f In a very-
interesting section of his Biblical Studies, p. 241 f., Dr.
Deissmann describes the official stamp impressed on legal
deeds recording and registering the sale of property ; and
maintains that this whole passage takes its origin from
the custom of marking with the Imperial stamp all records
of sale. This seems an inadequate explanation. The mark
of the Beast was a preliminary condition, and none who
wanted it were admitted to business transactions. But the
official stamp was merely the concomitant guarantee of
legality ; it was devoid of religious character ; and there
was no reason why it should not be used by Christians as
freely as by pagans.
That the mark of the Beast must be impressed in the right
hand or the forehead is a detail which remains obscure :
we know too little to explain it with certainty. If it had
been called simply the mark on the forehead, it might be
regarded as the public proof of loyalty by performance of
the ritual : this overt, public proof might be symbolically
called " a mark on the forehead ". But the mention of an
alternative place for the mark shows that a wider explana-
tion is needed. The proof of loyalty might be made in two
ways ; both were patent and public ; they are symbolically
described as the mark on the right hand or on the forehead ;
without one or the other no one was to be dealt with by the
loyal provincials.
That something like a "boycott" might be attempted in
the fervour of loyal hatred for the disloyal Christians seems
not impossible. That "strikes" occurred in the Asian
cities seems established by an inscription of Magnesia;*
and where " strikes " occur, an attempted " boycott " seems
As depicted in the Apocalypse 107
also possible. But the character attributed to this mark of
the Beast extends far beyond the operation of a mere
restriction on trading transactions. It must be remem-
bered that the age was the extremest and worst period of
"delation," i.e. of prosecution by volunteer accusers on
charges of treason. The most trifling or the most serious
actions were alike liable to be twisted into acts of personal
disrespect to the Emperor, and thus to expose the doer of
them to the extremest penalty of the law ; a falsehood told,
a theft committed, a wrong word spoken, in the presence of
any image or representation of the Emperor, might be con-
strued as disrespect to his sacred majesty : even his bust on
a coin constituted the locality an abode of the Imperial
god, and made it necessary for those who were there to
behave as in the Divine presence. Domitian carried the
theory of Imperial Divinity and the encouragement of
" delation " to the most extravagant point ; and thereby
caused a strong reaction in the subsequent Imperial policy.
Precisely in that time of extravagance occurs this ex-
travagant exaggeration of the Imperial theory : that in one
way or another every Asian must stamp himself overtly
and visibly as loyal, or be forthwith disqualified from parti-
cipation in ordinary social life and trading. How much of
grim sarcasm, how much of literal truth, how much of
exaggeration, there lies in those words, — that no man should
be able to buy or selly save he that hath the mark of the Beast
on his right hand or upon his forehead, — it is impossible for
us now to decide. It is probably safe to say that there
lies in them a good deal of sarcasm, combined with so much
resemblance to the real facts as should ensure the immediate
comprehension of the readers. But that there is an ideal
truth in them, that they give a picture of the state of anxiety
io8 IX. The Flavian Persecution
and apprehension, of fussy and over-zealous profession of
loyalty which the policy of Domitian was producing in the
Roman world, is certain.
This is the description given by St, John of the Flavian
persecution. It shows that persecution to have been an
organised attempt to combine many influences so as to
exterminate the Christians, and not a mere sporadic though
stern repression such as occurred repeatedly during the
second century. But it is already certain that the Flavian
persecution was of that character. Trajan, while admitting
the same principle of State, that the Christians must be
regarded as outlaws and treated like brigands, deprived
persecution of its worst characteristics by forbidding the
active search after Christians and requiring a formal accusa-
tion by a definite accuser. Under the Flavian Emperors
we see an extremely cruel and bitter public movement
against the Christians, an attempt to enlist religious feeling
on the side of the Empire, and a zealous participation of
the Asian provincial bodies, beginning from the Commune,
in the persecution as a proof of their loyalty.
A recent writer on this subject expresses doubt as to
" the degree to which the worship of the Emperor had
become the normal test applied to one accused of being
a Christian ".^ How any doubt can remain in face of this
passage, even were it alone, it is hard to see. It is difficult
to devise a more effective and conclusive declaration that
the religion of Christ and the religion of the Emperor were
now explicitly and professedly ranged against one another,
and that the alternative presented to every individual Chris-
tian was to ''^worship the image of the Beast" or death.
It furnishes no argument against this view of the character
of the Flavian persecution that, during the persecutions of
As depicted in the Apocalypse 109
the second century, no attempt seems to have been made
actively to stimulate religious feeling among the populace
as an ally against the new religion. The attempt was made
in the last great persecution, during the times of Diocletian
and his successors. Then again the Imperial government
attempted to seek out and exterminate the Christians. It
" took advantage of and probably stimulated a philosophical
religious revival, characterised by strong anti-Christian feel-
ing ; and employed for its own ends the power of a fervid
emotion acting on men who were often of high and strongly
religious motives. Christianity had to deal with a rein-
vigorated and desperate religion, educated and spiritualised
in the conflict with the Christians. The Acta of St.
Theodotus of Ancyra furnishes an instance of the way in
which the devoted fanaticism of such men made them con-
venient tools for carrying out the purposes of the govern-
ment ; ^ the approach of the new governor of Galatia and
the announcement of his intentions struck terror into the
hearts of the Christians ; his name was Theotecnus, ' the
child of God,' a by-name assumed by a philosophic pagan
reactionary in competition with the confidence of the Chris-
tians in their Divine mission and the religious names which
their converts assumed at baptism." ^ This description
gives some idea of the state of things in the Province
Asia which prompted the words of St. John. We need
not doubt that Theotecnus and others like him also made
use of signs and marvels for their purposes. Theotecnus
seems to have been the author of the Acts of Pilate, an
attack on the Christian belief A remarkable inscription
found near Acmonia in Phrygia is the epitaph of one of
those pagan philosophic zealots, not an official of the
Empire, but a leading citizen and priest in the Province.'
no IX. The Flavian Persecution
He is described in his epitaph as having received the gift
of prophecy from the gods. His very name Athanatos
Epitynchanos, son of Pius, Immortal Fortunate, son of
Religious, quite in the style of the Pilgrim's Progress^
marks his character and part in the drama of the time.
His pretensions to prophetic gift were supported, we may
be sure, by signs and marvels.
Less is known about the second last persecution, 249-51
A.D., in which Decius attempted in a similar way to seek
out and exterminate the Christians. But another inscrip-
tion of Acmonia is the epitaph of a relative, perhaps the
grandfather or uncle of Athanatos Epitynchanos.^ His
name was Telesphoros, Consummator, and he was hiero-
phant of a religious association in Acmonia ; and his wife
and his sons Epitynchanos and Epinikos (Victorious) made
his grave in company with the whole association. This
document is a proof that a similar religious pagan revival
accompanied the persecution of Decius in Acmonia ; and
Acmonia may be taken as a fair example of the provincial
spirit in the persecutions. It is evident that, in those great
persecutions, a strong public feeling against the Christians
stimulated the Emperors to action, and that the Emperors,
in turn, tried to urge on the religious feeling of the public
into fanaticism, as an aid in the extermination of the
sectaries.
In the two last persecutions official certificates of loyalty
were issued to those who had complied with the law and
taken part in the ritual of the Imperial religion. These
certificates form an apt parallel to the " mark of the Beast,"
and prove that that phrase refers to some real feature of the
Flavian persecution in Asia.^°
Those three persecutions stand apart from all the rest
As depicted in the Apocalypse 1 1 1
in a class by themselves. The intermediate Emperors
shrank from thoroughly and logically putting in practice
the principle which they all recognised in theory — that a
Christian was necessarily disloyal and outlawed in virtue
of the name and confession. All three are characterised
by the same features and methods, which stand clearly
revealed in the Apocalypse for the first of them and in
many documents for the last.
The analogy of the official certificates in the time of
Diocletian suggests that in the Flavian period the mark of
the Beast on the right hand may have been a similar official
certificate of loyalty. A provincial who was exposed to
suspicion must carry in his hand such a certificate, while
one who was notoriously and conspicuously loyal might be
said to carry the mark on his forehead. In the figurative
or symbolic language of the Apocalypse hardly anything
is called by its ordinary and direct name, but things are
indirectly alluded to under some other name, and words
have to be understood as implying something else than
their ordinary connotation ; and therefore it seems a fair
inference that the mark on the forehead is the apocalyptic
description of a universal reputation for conspicuous de-
votion to the cult of the Emperor.
The shadow of the Imperial religion lies deep over the
whole book. But the remarkable feature of the book — the
feature which gave it its place in the New Testament in
spite of some undeniable defects, which for a time made its
place uncertain, and which still constitute a senous difficulty
in reading it as an authoritative expression of the Christian
spirit — is that the writer is never for a moment affected by
the shadow. He was himself a sufferer, not to death, but
to what he would feel as a worse fate : he was debarred
112 IX. The Flavian Persecution
from helping and advising his Churches in the hour of trial.
But there is no shadow of sorrow or discouragement or
anxiety as to the issue. The Apocalypse is a vision of
victory. The great Empire is already vanquished. It has
done its worst ; and it has already failed. Not all the
Christians have been victors ; but those who have deserted
their ranks and dropped out of the fight have done so from
inner incapacity, and not because the persecuting Emperor
is stronger than they. Every battle fought to the end is a
defeat for the Empire and a Christian victory. Every
effort that the Emperor makes is only another opportunity
for failing more completely. The victory is not to gain :
it already is. The Church is the only reality in its city :
the rest of the city is mere pretence and sham. The Church
is the city, heir to all its history and its glories, heir too to
its weaknesses and its difficulties and sometimes succumb-
ing to them.
The most dangerous kind of error that can be made
about the Apocalypse is to regard it as a literal statement
and prediction of events. Thus, for example xviii. i-xix. 21
is not to be taken as a prophecy of the manner in which,
or the time at which, the downfall of the great Empire and
of the great City was to be accomplished ; it is not to be
understood as foreshadowing the Papacy, according to the
foolish imaginings, "philosophy and vain deceit" as St.
Paul would have called them (Col. ii. 8) of one modern
school ; it is not to be tortured by extremists on any side
into conformity with their pet hatreds. Those are all idle
fancies, which do harm to no one except those who waste
their intellect on them. But it becomes a serious evil
when the magnificent confidence and certainty of St. John
as to the speedy accomplishment of all these things is
As depicted in the Apocalypse 1 1 3
distorted into a declaration of the immediate Coming of
the Lord and the end of the world. Time was not an
element in his anticipation. He was gazing on the eternal,
in which time has no existence. Had any Asian reader
asked him at what time these things should be accom-
plished, he would assuredly have answered in the spirit of
Browning's Grammarian : —
What's time ? Leave " now " to dogs and apes :
Man has forever.
Moreover, it is declared in the plainest language which
the Apocalypse admits that the series of the Emperors is
to continue yet for a season. The Beast himself is the
eighth king {i.e. Emperor, according to the strict technical
usage of the Greek word) : he is the incarnation and climax
of the whole seven that precede: he is Domitian himself as
the visible present embodiment of the Impeiial system. But
the beast has also ten horns : these are ten Emperors^ which
have not been invested with Imperial power as yet ; but they
receive authority as Emperors with the Beast {i.e. as units in
the Imperial system) for one hour: these shall war against
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : xvii. 12, 14.
The number ten is here to be interpreted as in ii. 10,
where the Church of Smyrna is to be exposed to persecu-
tion for ten days. It merely denotes a finite number as
contrasted with infinity : the series of Emperors is limited
and comes to an end in due season. Rome shall perish.
In one sense Rome is perishing now in every failure that it
makes, in the victory of every martyr. The Beast was and
is not. In another sense the end is not yet. But there is an
end. The power of every Emperor v&for one hour : he shall
live his little span of pomp and pride, of power and failure,
and he shall go down to the abyss, like his predecessors.
CHAPTER X.
THE PROVINCE OF ASIA AND THE IMPERIAL RELIGION.
The Roman Province of Asia included most of the western
half of Asia Minor, with the countries or regions of Caria,
Lydia, Phrygia, Mysia, and the coast-lands of the Troad,
iEolis and Ionia. It was the earliest Roman possession
on the continent of Asia. Conquered by the Romans in
the war against Antiochus the Great, it was given by them
to their ally Eumenes, King of Pergamum, at the peace
which was concluded in 189 B.C. ; and in 133 B.C. it was
bequeathed by his nephew and adopted son Attalus III. to
the great conquering people. The real existence of this
will, formerly suspected to be a mere invention of the
Romans, is now established by definite testimony. The
King knew that the illegitimate Aristonicus would claim
the Kingdom, and that there was no way of barring him
out except through the strength of Rome.
Thus Asia had been a Roman Province for more than
two hundred years when the Seven Letters were written.
Its history under Roman rule had been chequered. It was
the wealthiest region of the whole Roman Empire, and was
therefore peculiarly tempting to the greed of the average
Roman official. Amid the misgovernment and rapacity
that attended the last years of the Republic, Asia suffered
terribly. The Asiatics possessed money ; and the ordinary
Roman, whose characteristic faults were greed and cruelty,
(114)
Province of Asia and the Imperial Religion 1 1 5
shrank from no crime in order to enrich himself quickly
during his short tenure of office in the richest region of the
world. Hence the Province welcomed with the enthusiasm
of people brought back from death to life the advent of the
Empire, which inaugurated an era of comparative peace,
order, and respect for property. In no part of the world,
probably, was there such fervent and sincere loyalty to
the Emperors as in Asia. Augustus had been a saviour to
the Asian peoples, and they deified him as the Saviour of
mankind, and worshipped him with the most whole-hearted
devotion as the God incarnate in human form, the " present
deity ". He alone stood between them and death or a life
of misery and torture. They hailed the birthday of Au-
gustus as the beginning of a new year, and worshipped
the incarnate God in public and in private (p. 54).
In order to understand rightly the position of Chris-
tianity in Asia and the spirit of the Seven Asian Letters, it
is necessary to conceive clearly the means whereby the Im-
perial policy sought to unify and consolidate the Province.
There can be little doubt that several of the features of
Christianity were determined in Asia. Roman Provincial
unity, founded in a common religion, was the strongest
idea in Asia, and it must inevitably influence, whether
directly or through the recoil from and opposition to it,
the growth of such an organisation as the Church in Asia,
for the Christian Church from the beginning recognised the
political facts of the time and accommodated itself to them.
Meetings of representatives of the Asian cities were held
at least as early as 95 B.C., and probably date from the
time of the Pergamenian kings. Doubtless the kings tried
to make their kingdom a real unity, with a common feeling
and patriotism, and not merely an agglomeration of parts
1 1 6 X. The Province of Asia
tied together under compulsion and external authority;
and, if so, they could attain this end only by instituting
a common worship. In the case of the Asian Commune
a Pergamenian origin seems proved by the name of the
representatives in the official formula "it seemed good to
the Hellenes in Asia ". It appears improbable that an as-
sembly which had been formed by the Romans for diffusing
Roman ideas would have borne officially the name of " the
Hellenes in Asia".^ But the Pergamenian kings counted
themselves the champions of Hellenism against Asiatic
barbarism ; and their partisans in the cities were " the
Hellenes ".
Such common cults had always the same origin, viz.^ in
an agreement among the persons or cities concerned to
unite for certain purposes, and to make certain deities
witnesses and patrons of their union. Thus every treaty
between two cities had its religious side, and involved the
common performance of rites by representatives of both
sides : these rites might be performed either to the patron
gods of the two cities (which was usual), or to some god or
gods chosen by common consent. The same process was
applied when a larger body of cities agreed (of course first
of all by negotiations and treaty) to form a union. Every
such union of cities had its religious side and its religious
sanction in rites performed by representatives of all the
cities. These representatives, as being chosen to perform
a religious duty, were priests of the common worship.
It is an easy step, though not a necessary one, to insti-
tute also city temples of the same worship, so that the city
may itself carry on the same ritual on its own behalf. All
that is necessary for the common worship is one sacred
place where the meetings can be held.
And the Imperial Religion 117
In the Pergameni'an time the common cult was probably
the worship of the typically Pergamenian deities (whose
worship also spread to some of the Asian cities, as is pointed
out, p. 124). The policy of Rome allowed free play to this
religion, as it always did to any social institution which was
not disloyal and dangerous. But the Asian assembly soon
began to imitate the example set by Smyrna in 195 B.C.
of worshipping the power of Rome ; and from 95 B.C.
onwards there occur cases of Asian cults of beneficent
Roman officers (Scaivola, Q. Cicero, etc.), as well as of
similar municipal cults.^ Such an Asian cult could be insti-
tuted only by an assembly of representatives of the Asian
cities, and the old Pergamenian institution thus served a
Roman purpose. The name Commune occurs first in a
letter sent by M. Antony in 'i^'^ B.C. to "the Commune of
the Hellenes of Asia " ; the older references give various
names, implying always an assembly of Asian represen-
tatives.2 j^. ^^g Augustus who constituted the Commune
finally, using its loyalty to Rome and himself for an Im-
perial end.
In that agglomeration of various countries and nations,
differing in race and in speech, the one deep-seated unifying
feeling arose from the common relation in which all stood
to the Emperor and to Rome. There was nothing else to
hold the Province together in a unity except the enthu-
siastic loyalty which all felt to the Roman Imperial gov-
ernment. There was not then in any of the races that
inhabited the Province a strong national feeling to run
counter to the Roman loyalty. It does not appear that
Lydian or Phrygian patriotism and national feeling had
much power during the first two centuries of the Province.
Circumstances had long been such that national patriotic
1 1 8 X. The Province of Asia
feeling could hardly be called into existence. There was
plenty of strong feeling and true loyalty among the in-
habitants of each city towards their own city. But Greek
life and the Greek spirit, while favourable to the growth of
that municipal feeling, did not encourage a wider loyalty.
It remained for the Roman organisation and unifying power
to widen the range of loyalty ; and the first important
stage in this process came through that intense personal
devotion to Augustus as the Saviour of the civilised world
and bearer of the Majesty of Rome.
In the condition of human thought and religious con-
ceptions that then prevailed, such an intense feeling must
take a religious form. Whatever deeply affected the minds
of a body of men, few or many, inevitably assumed a
religious character. No union or association of any kind
was then possible except in a common religion, whose
ritual expressed the common feelings and purpose. Thus
the growth of an Asian Provincial religion of Rome and
the Emperor was natural.
The Imperial policy took advantage of this natural growth,
guided it, and regulated it, but did not call it into existence.
Augustus at first rather discouraged it — doubtless because
he dreaded lest its anti-republican character might offend
Roman sentiment. But it was too strong for him ; and
after a time he perceived the advantages that it offered,
and proceeded to utilise it as a political device, binding
together the whole Province in a common religious cere-
monial, and a common strong feeling. The one and only
Asian unity was the Imperial cult. It was directed and
elaborated by the Commune or Common Council of Asia,
a body which seems to have had more of the " representa-
tive " character than any other institution of ancient times,
And the Imperial Religion 119
and thus was the prototype of a Parliament. Asia was
divided into districts, apparently, and a certain number
of cities had the title of metropolis ; but the details regard-
ing the representation of the districts or the metropoles
in the Commune are unknown.
The relation of the Christian organisation in Asia to the
Commune, or rather to the tendency towards consolidation
which took an Imperial form in the Commune, is brought
out in striking relief by several facts. The Commune was
the common assembly of the Hellenes of Asia, The ten-
dency towards consolidation was a fact of Hellenism, not
of the native Anatolian spirit. Now it has been elsewhere
shown that Christianity was at first far more strenuously
opposed to the native spirit than to the Hellenic' The one
reference to the Commune in the New Testament outside
of the Apocalypse is in Acts xix. 31, where certain members
of that body, " chief officers of Asia" are mentioned as friends
of St. Paul, and took his side against the mob of worshippers
of Ephesian Artemis, a typically Anatolian goddess.
Again Christianity in Asia expressed itself in Greek, not
in any of the native languages. Although the majority,
probably, of the people of Phrygia spoke the Phrygian
language, and a large number of them were entirely ignor-
ant of Greek in the first century, yet there is no evidence
and no probability that Christianity ever addressed itself
to them in Phrygian. St. Paul avoided Phrygia, with the
exception of the two cities in the Phrygian Region of the
Roman Province Galatia, viz.^ Antioch and Iconium (Acts
xvi. 6). The Church in Asia was Greek-speaking, and had
become, by the fourth century, the most powerful agent in
making a knowledge of Greek almost universal, even in the
rural parts of the Province. The Greek character of the
1 20 X. The Province of Asia
entire Church in its earlisr stages — for even the Church
in Rome was mainly Greek in language until the middle of
the second century — was chiefly determined by the charac-
ter of the Province Asia The relation of the Province to
the Greek language therefore needs and deserves attention.
The Province of Asia included the most civilised and
educated regions of the Asiatic continent, ancient and famous
Greek cities like Cyme, Colophon and Miletus, the realms
of former lines of monarchs like the Lydian kings at Sardis,
the Attalid kings at Pergamum, and the Carian kings at
Halicarnassus. It was the most thoroughly Hellenised
part of all Anatolia or Asia Minor. The native languages
had died out in its western parts, and been replaced by
Greek ; Lydian had ceased to be spoken or known in
Lydia, when Strabo wrote about A.D. 20 ; Carian was then
probably unknown in the western parts of Caria, though
the central and eastern districts were not so far advanced.
Mysia, the north-western region of the Province, was prob-
ably in a similar condition to Caria, the west and the
coasts entirely Greek-speaking, the inner parts less ad-
vanced. Most thoroughly Anatolian in character, and least
affected by Greek civilisation, was Phrygia. West Phrygia
and especially the parts adjoining Lydia were most affected
by Hellenism ; whereas in the centre and east the Greek
language seems to have been hardly known outside the
great cities until the late second or the third century after
Christ. Even in the western parts, it is proved that in the
rustic and rough region cf Motella, not far from the Lydian
frontier, Greek was strange to many of the country people
at least as late as the second century. In the extreme south-
west of Phrygia, in the district of Cibyra, Strabo mentions
that four languages were spoken in the first century, viz.^
And the Imperial Religion 121
Greek, Pisidian, Solymian and Lydian.'* The last had died
out in Lydia, but survived in the speech of a body of
Lydian colonists in Cib}-ra, just as Gaelic is more widely
preserved and more exclusively spoken in parts of Canada
to-day than it is in the Highlands of Scotland.
But the great cities of the Province Asia (as distin-
guished from the rural parts), except a few of the most
backward Phrygian towns, were pretty thoroughly Greek
in the first century after Christ ; and everywhere through-
out the Province all education was Greek, and there was
probably no writing except in Greek. It seems to have
been only in the second century that the native Anatolian
feeling revived, and writing began to be practised in the
native tongues ; at least all inscriptions in the Phrygian
language (except those of the ancient kingdom, before the
Persian conquest) seem to be later than about A.D. 150.
Religion, too, was in outward appearance Hellenised in
the cities ; and the Anatolian deities were there commonly
called by Greek names. But this was only a superficial
appearance ; the ritual and the character of the religion
continued Anatolian even in the cities, while in the rural
districts there was not even an outward show of Hellenisa-
tion.
Thus, in the Province Asia, there was a great mixture
of language, manners and religion. Apart from the Roman
unity, the various nations were as far from being really
uniform in character and customs and thought, as they were
from being one in blood. The Imperial Government did
not attempt to compel the various peoples to use Latin or
any common language : it did not try to force Roman law
or habits and ways on the Province, still less to uproot the
Greek civilisation. It was content to leave the half-Greek
122 X. The Province of Asia
or Graeco-Asiatic law and civilisation of Asia undisturbed.
But it discouraged the national distinctions and languages ;
it recognised Greek, but not Phrygian or Pisidian or Carian ;
it tried to make a unified Graeco-Roman Asia Provincia
out of that agglomeration of countries. The attempt failed
ultimately ; but it was made ; it was the ruling feature of
administration in the first century ; and the whole trend of
Roman feeling and loyalty in all the provinces of Asia Minor
during the first century was in favour of the Provincial idea
and against the old national divisions. The term which
Strabo uses to represent in Greek the Latin Asia Provincia
expresses the true Roman point of view. He speaks of
the Province as " the nation Asia " : i.e.^ the Roman Province
took the place of any national divisions : loyalty considered
that there was only one nation in Asia, that the Province
was the nation.
As time went on and the past pre-Imperial miseries were
forgotten, the fervour of loyalty, which had for a time
given some real strength to the Imperial religion, began
to cool down ; and there was no longer strength in it to
hold the Province together, while there was a growth in the
strength of national feeling, Polemon the Sophist of the
time of Hadrian and Pius was called " the Phrygian," be-
cause he was bom of a Laodicean family ; and when lonians
were using such a nickname, Phrygians naturally began to
retort by assuming it as a mark of pride. It was Hadrian
probably who saw that the Roman ideal was not strong
enough in itself without support from local and old national
feeling; and from his time onwards the Imperial policy
ceased to be so hostile to the old national distinctions. He
did not try to break up the vast Roman Provinces ; but
there are traces of an attempt to recognise national divi-
And the Imperial Religion 123
sions : e.g., the new Province of the Tres Eparchiae was left
in fact and name a loose aggregate of three countries,
Cilicia, Isauria, Lycaonia, which kept their national names
and had probably three distinct Communes or Councils.^
The union of Asia was already old ; but he tried to
strengthen it in a way characteristic of ancient feeling,
viz., by giving it a support in Anatolian religion as well
as in the Imperial religion.
During the first century the State religion was simply
the worship of the Emperor or of Rome and the Emperor.
But that was only a sham religion, a matter of outward
show and magnificent ceremonial. It was almost devoid
of power over the heart and will of man, when the first
strong sense of relief from misery had grown weak, because
it was utterly unable to satisfy the religious needs and
cravings of human nature. From a very early time there
seems to have existed in the Eastern Provinces a tendency
to give more reality to this Imperial religion by identify-
ing the Divine Emperor with the local God, whatever form
the latter had : thus the religious feelings and habits of
the people in each district were associated to some extent
with the Imperial divinity and the State religion. Perhaps
it was Domitian who first saw clearly that the Imperial re-
ligion required to be reinforced by enlisting in its service
the deep-seated reverence of men for their local God. In
the second century the custom of associating the Emperor
with the local deity in a common religious ritual seems to
have spread much more widely, and the old tendency to
make certain local gods into gods of the Province became
more marked. Under Hadrian a silver coinage for the
whole of Asia was struck with the types, not merely of the
Pergamenian temple of Augustus, but also of the Ephesian
124
X. The Province of Asia
Diana, the two Smyrnaean goddesses Nemesis, the Sardian
Persephone, etc., thus giving those deities a sort of Pro-
vincial standing. This class of coins was struck under the
authority of the Commune. But it was in the Flavian
persecution that this approximation between the native re-
ligions and the Imperial worship began first to be impor-
tant. This approximation put an end to the hope, which
St. Paul had cherished, that the conquest of the Empire by
Fig. 7. — The Temple of Augustus at Pergamum : Coin of the Commune of
Asia.
the new faith might be accomplished peacefully. It now
became apparent that war was inevitable, and its first stage
was the Flavian perr.ecution.
In Asia the Ephesian religion of Artemis was the only
native cultus which had by its own natural strength spread
widely through the Province. Before the Roman period
the royal character of Pergamum had given strength to
its deities, especially Asklepios the Saviour and Dion}'sos
the Guide (Kathegemon). The latter was the royal God,
and the royal family was regarded as sprung from him,
And the Imperial Religion
"5
and the reigning king was his representative and incarna-
tion. Asklepios, on the other hand, was the God of the
city Pergamum. Hence in several cities even in distant
Phrygia the worship of those two deities was introduced ;
and after the Roman period had begun, the respect felt
for the capital of Asia was expressed by paying honour
to its god. This is very characteristic of ancient feeling.
The patron god is the representative of his city, just as
Fig. 8. — Ephesus and Sardis represented by their goddesses.
the angel in the Seven Letters stands for his Church.
Municipal patriotism was expressed by worshipping the
god of the city ; and other parts of Asia recognised the
superior rank of Pergamum by worshipping Asklepios the
Saviour.
In Roman time, also, the natural advantages of Ephesus
had full play. Ephesus was brought into trading relations
with many cities ; many strangers experienced the protec-
tion and prayed for the favour of the Ephesian Goddess.
Thus, for example, she is recognised alongside of the
native God Zeus and the Pergamenian Asklepios in the
126 X. The Province of Asia
last will and testament of a citizen nf Akmonia, dated A.D.
94.^ Many cities of xA.sia ma le ac^reements with each other
for mutual recognition of their cults and festivals and com-
mon rights of all citizens of both cities at the festivals ; and
such agreements were usually commemorated by striking
what are called " alliance- coins," on which the patron deities
of the two cities are represented side by side. The custom
shows a certain tendency in Asia towards an amalgamation
and fusing of local religions ; and Ephesus concluded more
•' alliances " of this kind than any other city of Asia. Hence
in AD. 56 the une lucated devotees of Artemis of Ephesus
spoke of their Goddess, " whom all Asia and the civilised
world tvorsJiippeth ".
The machinery of Roman government in the Province
— the Proconsul (who resided mostly in the official capital,
though he landed and embarked at Ephesus and often
made a progress through the important cities of the Pro-
vince) and oiher officers — does not directly affect the Seven
Letters, and need not detain us.
More important is the Provincial religious organisation,
directed by the Commune. The one original temple of the
Asian cultus at Pergamum was soon found insufficient to
satisfy the demonstrative loyalty of the Asians. Moreover,
the jealous rivalry of other great cities made tiiem seek for
similar distinctions. Asian temples were built in Smyrna
(Tiberius), Ephesus, Sardis, etc. Each temple was a meet-
ing-place of the Commune ; and where the Commune met,
games "common to Asia" weie celebrated (such as those,
at which Polycarp suffered in Smyrna). The Commune
was essentially a body charged with religious duties, but
religion was closely interwoven with civil affairs, and the
Commune had other work : it had control of certain re-
And the Imperial Religion 127
venues, and must therefore have had an annual budget, it
struck coins, etc.
The most interesting side of Imperial history is the
growth of ideas, which have been more fully developed
later. Universal citizenship, universal religion, a universal
Church, were ideas which the Empire was slowly, some-
times quite unconsciously, working out or preparing forj
The Commune contained the germ on one side of a Par-
liament of representatives, on another side of a religious
hierarchy.
CHAPTER XI.
THE CITIES OF ASIA AS MEETING-PLACES OF THE GREEK
AND THE ASIATIC SPIRIT.
The marked and peculiar character of the society and
population of the great Asian cities, amid which the local
Churches were built up, is present in the writer's mind
throughout the Seven Letters ; and it is necessary to form
some conception of this subject. Disregarding differences,
we shall try to describe briefly the chief forces which had
been at work in those cities during the last three centu-
ries, and the prominent features that were common to them
all about A.D. 90. Some of them were ancient Greek col-
onies, like Smyrna and Ephesus, some were old Anatolian
cities, like Pergamum and Sardis ; but all these had re-
cently experienced great changes, and many new cities,
like Laodicea, Philadelphia, Thyatira, had been founded
by the kings.
The successors of Alexander the Great were Greek kings,
ruling Oriental lands and peoples. To maintain their hold
on their dominions it was necessary to build up a suitable
organisation in the countries over which they ruled. Their
method everywhere was similar : it was to make cities that
should be at once garrisons to dominate the country and
centres of Graeco-Asiatic manners and education, which
the kings were desirous of spreading among their Oriental
subjects. The rather pedantic adjective Graeco-Asiatic is
(128)
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 129
used to describe the form which Greek civilisation was
forced to assume, as it attempted to establish itself in
Oriental lands : it did not merely change the cities, it was
itself much altered in the attempt. Sometimes those kings
founded new cities, where previously there seem to have
been only villages. Sometimes they introduced an acces-
sion of population and change of constitution in already
existing cities, a process which may be described as re-
founding. In both cases alike a new name, connected
with the dynasty, was almost invariably substituted for
the previous name of the village or city, though in many
cases the old name soon revived, e.g.^ in Ephesus and in
Tarsus. Commonest among them were the Seleucid names
Antioch and Laodicea, and the Macedonian Alexandria.
The new population consisted generally of colonists
brought from foreign countries, who were considered in-
truders and naturally not much liked by the older popula-
tion. The colonists were granted property and privileges
in their new cities ; and they knew that the continuance
of their fortunes and rights depended on the permanence of
the royal government which had introduced them. Thus
those strangers constituted a loyal garrison in every city
where they had been planted. With them were associated
in loyalty the whole party that favoured the royal policy,
or hoped to profit by it. It would appear that these con-
stituted a powerful combination in the cities. They were
in general the active, energetic, and dominating party.
How important in the New Testament writings those
Asian foundations of the Greek kings were, is brought out
very clearly by a glance over the list of cities. Laodicea
and Thyatira were founded or refounded by Seleucid kings :
the Ionian Greek cities in general were profoundly modified
130 XI. The Cities of Asia
by them. Ephesus, Smyrna, Troas, Pergamum and Phila-
delphia were refounded by other Greek kings in the same
period and under similar circumstances.
Two classes of settlers were specially required and en-
couraged in the Seleucid colonies. In the first place, of
course, soldiers were needed. These were found chiefly
among the mercenaries of many nations — but mostly of
northern race, Macedonians, Thracians,^ etc. — who made up
the strength of the Seleucid armies. The harsh, illiterate,
selfish, domineering tone of those soldier-citizens was often
satirised by the Greek writers of the third and second
centuries before Christ, who delighted to paint them as
braggarts, cowards at heart, boasting of false exploits ; and
the boastful soldier, the creation of Greek wit and malice,
has been perpetuated since that time on the Roman and the
Elizabethan stage in traits essentially the same.
But the Greek kings knew well that soldiers alone were
not enough to establish their cities on a permanent basis.
Other colonists were needed, able to manage, to lead, to train
the rude Oriental peasantry in the arts on which civilised
life must rest, to organise and utilise their labour and create
a commercial system. The experience of the present day
in the cities of the east Mediterranean lands shows where
such colonists could best be found. They were Greeks and
Jews. Nowadays Armenians also would be available ; but
at that time Armenia had hardly come within reach of even
the most elementary civilisation. Only among the Greeks
and the Jews was there that familiarity with ideals, that
power and habit of thinking for themselves and of working
for a future and remote end, which the kings needed in
their colonists. Modern students do not as a rule conceive
the Jews as an educated race, and some can hardly find
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 131
language strong enough to describe their narrowness and
deadness of intellect. But when compared with the races
that surrounded them, the Greeks excepted, the Jews stood
on a far higher intellectual platform : they knew one book
(or, rather, one collection of books) well, and it was a liberal
education to them.
One might hardly expect to find that the Greeks were
loyal subjects of Seleucid kings. They were apt to be
democratic and unruly ; but it is as true of ancient as it
is of modern times that the Greeks are " better and more
prosperous under almost any other government than they
are under their own".^ They accommodated themselves
with their usual dexterity and pliancy to their position ;
and circumstances, as we have seen, made them dependent
on the kings. The stagnant and unprogressive Oriental
party looked askance at and disliked the Greek element ;
and the latter must regard the kings as their champions,
even though the Seleucid kings were far too autocratic and
too strongly tinged with the Oriental fashions for the Greek
colonists to feel in thorough sympathy with them. But
settlers and kings alike had the common interest that
they must dominate the uneducated mass of the ancient
population. Thus the constitution of the new cities was a
compromise, a sort of limited monarchy, where democratic
freedom and autocratic rule tempered and restrained each
other ; and the result was distinctly favourable to the
development and prosperity of the cities.
It may seem even stranger that the Jews should be found
by Seleucid kings their best and most loyal subjects out-
side of Palestine, for those kings were considered by the
Jews of Palestine to be the most deadly enemies of their
race and religion. But the Jew outside of Palestine was a
132 XI. The Cities of Asia
different person and differently situated from the Jew in
his own land. Abroad he was resigned to accept the
government of the land in which he lived, and to make
the best of it ; and he found that loyalty was by far the
best policy. He could be useful to the government ; and
the government was eager to profit by and ready to reward
his loyalty. Thus their interests were identical. More-
over, the Jewish colonies planted by the Seleucid kings in
Asia Minor and Cilicia were all older than the Maccabaean
rising, when the Jewish hatred for the Seleucid kings came
to a head.
Their moral scruples divided the Jews from their neigh-
bours in the cities, and thereby made them all the more
sensible of the fact that it was the royal favour which main-
tained them safe and privileged in the places where they
lived as citizens. In Palestine their ritual kept the Jews
aloof from and hostile to the Seleucid kings and fed their
national aspirations. But in the Graeco-Asiatic cities their
ritual actually bound them more closely to the king's service.
Through similar causes, at a later time, the Jews in
Palestine hated the Roman government and regarded it as
the abominable thing, and they were subdued only after
many rebellions and the most stubborn resistance. And
yet, through that troubled period, the Jews outside Pales-
tine were loyal subjects of the Empire, distinguished by
their special attachment to the side of the Emperors against
the old Roman republican party.
Moreover, the Jews, an essentially Oriental race, found
the strong Oriental tinge in the policy of the Seleucid
kings far more congenial to them than the Greek colonists
could do. The " grave Hebrew trader," if one may imitate
the words of Matthew Arnold, was by nature essentially
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 133
opposed to "the young, light-hearted master of the wave' .
Hence the Jewish settlers formed a counterpoise against
the Greek colonists in the Seleucid cities, and, wherever
the Greek element seemed too strong, the natural policy
of the kings was to plant Jews in the same city.
That remarkable shifting and mixing of races was, of
course, not produced simply by arbitrary acts of the Greek
kings, violently transporting population hither and thither
at their caprice. The royal policy was successful, because
it was in accordance with the tendencies of the time as de-
scribed in chapter i. The Graeco-Asiatic cities between
300 and 100 B.C. were in process of natural growth through
the settling in them of strangers ; and the strangers came
for purposes of trade, eager to make money. The kings
interfered only to regulate and to direct to their own ad-
vantage a process which they had not originated and could
not have prevented. What they did for those strangers
was to give them the fullest rights in the cities where they
settled. The strangers and their descendants would have
always remained aliens ; but the kings made them citizens,'
gave them a voice in the government and a position in the
city as firm and influential as that of the best, increased
their numbers by assisting immigrants, and presented them
with lands.
Even the Jews, though introduced specially by the
Seleucid kings, and always most numerous in the Seleucid
colonies, were spread throughout the great cities of the
Greek world, and especially in the chief centres of trade
and finance (as might be expected).
The result of that free mixture of races in the Grasco-
Asiatic cities was to stimulate a rapid and precocious
development. There was great ease of intercourse and
134 ^I- 1^^^ Cities of Asia
freedom of trade, a settled and sound coinage and mone-
tary system, much commerce on a considerable scale, much
eagerness and opportunity to make money by large financial
operations. There was also a notable development on the
intellectual side. Curiosity was stimulated in the meeting
of such diverse races. The Oriental came into relations
with the European spirit : each tried to understand and to
outwit the other.
Thus an amalgamation of Oriental and European races
and intellect, manners and law, was being worked out
practically in the collision and competition of such diverse
elements. It was an experiment in a direction that is often
theorised about and discussed at the present day. Can the
east take on the western character? Can the Asiatic be
made like a European ? In one sense that is impossible :
in another sense it was done in the Graeco-Asiatic cities,
and can be done again. It was done in them, not by
Europeanising the Asiatic, but by profoundly modifying
both ; each learned from the other ; and that is the only
treatment of the problem that can ever be successful.
This great experiment in human development was con-
ducted on a small scale and in a thin soil, but was all
the more precocious on that account, and also the more
short-lived. It was a hot-house growth, produced in cir-
cumstances which were evanescent ; and it was unnatural
and unhealthy.
The smallness of scale on which all Greek history was
conducted is one of its most remarkable features. In Greece
proper, as contrasted with the big countries and the large
masses of modern nations, the scale was quite minute. In
the Graeco-Asiatic States the scale seemed much greater;
but development was really confined to a number of spots
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 135
here and there, showing only as dots on a map, small islets
in the great sea of stagnant, unruffled, immovable Oriental-
ism. The Greek political and social system demanded a
small city as its scene, and broke down when the attempt
was made to apply it on a larger scale. But no more
stimulating environment to the intellect could be found than
was offered in the Graeco-Asiatic cities, and the scanty
glimpses which we get into the life of those cities reveal to
us a very quick, restless, intelligent society, keenly interested
in a rather empty and shallow kind of philosophic specula-
tion, and almost utterly destitute of any vivifying and in-
vigorating ideal.
The interest and importance to us of this moment in
society lies in the fact that Pauline Christianity arose in it
and worked upon it. In every page of Paul's writings that
restless, self-conceited, morbid, unhealthy society stands out
in strong relief before the reader. He knew it so well,
because he was born and brought up in its midst. He con-
ceived that his mission was to regenerate it, and the plan
which he saw to be the only possible one was to save the
Jew from sinking down to the pagan level by elevating the
pagan to the true Jewish level.* The writer of the Seven
Letters also, though a Jew from Palestine, had learned to
know the Asian cities by long residence.
The noblest feature of Greek city life was its zeal and
provision for education. The minute carefulness with which
those Asian-Greek cities legislated and provided for educa-
tion— watching over the young, keeping them from evil,
graduating their physical and mental training to suit
their age, moving them on from stage to stage — rouses the
deepest admiration in the scholar who laboriously spells out
and completes the records on the broken stones on which
136 XI. The Cities of Asia
they are written, and at the same time convinces him how
vain is mere law to produce any healthy education. It is
pathetic to think how poor was the result of all those wise
and beautiful provisions.
The literature of the age has almost utterly perished ;
but the extremely scanty remains, along with the Roman
imitations of it, do not suggest that there was anything
really great in it, though much cleverness, brilliance, and
sentimentality. Perhaps Theocritus, who comes at the
beginning of the age, might rank higher ; but the great
master of bucolic poetry, the least natural form of poetic
art, can hardly escape the charge of artificiality and senti-
mentality. In the realm of creative literature, the spirit
of the age is to be compared with that of the Restoration
in England, and partakes of the same deep-seated im-
morality.
The age was devoted to learning : it investigated antiqui-
ties, studied the works of older Greek writers, commented
on texts ; and the character of the time, in its poorness of
fibre and shallowness of method, is most clearly revealed
in this department. It is hardly possible to find any trace
of insight or true knowledge in the fragments of this branch
of literature that have come down to us. Athenodorus of
Tarsus was in many respects a man of ability, courage,
education, high ideas and practical sense ; but take a speci-
men of his history of his own city : " Anchiale, daughter of
Japetos, founded Anchiale (a city near Tarsus) : her son
was Cydnus, who gave his name to the river at Tarsus : the
son of Cydnus was Parthenius, from whom the city was
called Farthenia : afterwards the name was changed to
Tarsus". This habit of substituting irrational ^'■fables and
endless genealogies'' (i Tim. i. 4) for the attempt really to
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 137
understand nature and history was engrained in the spirit
of the time, and shows how superficial and unintelligent
its learning was. Out of it could come no real advance
in knowledge, but only frivolous argumentation and " ques-
tionings" (i Tim. i. 4).
Only in the department of moral philosophy did the
age sometimes reach a lofty level. A touch of Oriental
sympathy with the Divine nature enabled Athenodorus and
others to express themselves with singular dignity and
beauty on the duty of man and his relation to God. But
the ^^ endless genealogies^^ frequently obtruded themselves
in their finest speculations.
The Christian letters need to be constantly illustrated from
the life of those cities, and to be always read in the light of
a careful study of the society in them. It was, above all,
the philosophical speculation in which they excelled and
delighted that Paul detested. He saw serious danger in it.
Not only was it useless and resultless in itself, mere " empty
deceit " (Col. ii. 8), but, far worse, it led directly to super-
stition. Vain speculation, unable to support itself in its
lofty flight, unable to comprehend the real unity of the
world in God, invented for itself silly genealogies (i Tim.
i. 4), in which nature and creation were explained under
the empty fiction of sonship, and a chain of divine beings
in successive generations was made and worshipped ; and
human nature was humbly made subservient to these ficti-
tious beings, who were described as " angels " (Col. ii. 18 fif.).
This philosophical speculation cannot be properly con-
ceived in its historical development without bearing in mind
the mixed population and the collision of Jewish and Greek
thought which belonged to those great Graeco-Asiatic cities.
It united Greek and Jewish elements in arbitrary eclectic
138 XI. The Cities of Asia
systems. The mixture of Greek and Jewish thought is far
more conspicuous in Asia Minor than in Europe. Hence
there is not much trace of it in the Corinthian letters
(though some writers try to discover it, and lay exagger-
ated stress on it) : the Corinthian philosophers were of a
different kind. But in the cities of Asia, Phrygia, South
Galatia, and Cilicia — all along the great roads leading east
and west across Asia Minor — the minds of men were filled
with crude attempts at harmonising and mingling Oriental
(especially Jewish) and Greek ideas. Their attempts took
many shapes, from mere vulgar magical formulas and arts
to the serious and lofty morality of Athenodorus the Tarsian
in his highest moments of philosophy.
When we think of the intellectual skill, the philosophic
interest, and the extreme cleverness of the age, we feel the
inadequacy of those arguments — or rather those unargued
assertions — according to which the Epistle to the Colos-
sians reveals a stage of philosophic speculation, as applied
to Christian doctrines, so advanced that it could not have
been reached earlier than the second century. How long
would it take those clever and subtle philosophic inquirers
in those cities to achieve the slight feat of intellectual
gymnastic presupposed in the Epistle?
Such then was the motley population of the numerous
Seleucid colonies which were planted in Lydia, Phrygia,
Pisidia, and Lycaonia during the third century, and in
Cilicia during the second century B.C. The language of
the settlers was Greek, the language of trade and educa-
tion; and it was through these cities that a veneer of
Greek civilisation was spread over the Asiatic coasts.
The jealousies and rivalries of those great cities are a
quaint feature of their history in the Roman period. The
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 139
old Greek pride in their patris, their father-land — which to
them was simply their city — had no longer the opportunity
of expressing itself in the field of politics. No city could
have a foreign policy. Even in municipal matters, while
the Empire nominally allowed home rule, yet in practice
it discouraged it : the management of city business was
more and more taken out of the hands of the cities : the
Emperor was there to think for all and provide for all
better than they could for themselves. Municipal pride
Fig. 9. — Sardis the First Metropolis of Asia, of Lydia, and of Hellenism.
expressed itself in outward show, partly in the healthier
direction of improving and beautifying the cities, partly
in the vainglorious invention of names and titles. In every
Province and district there was keen competition for the
title first of the Province or the district. Every city which
could pretend to the first place in respect of any qualifi-
cation called itself " first," and roused the jealousy of other
cities which counted themselves equally good. Smyrna
was " first of Asia in size and beauty," Ephesus first of Asia
as the landing-place of every Roman official, Pergamum
140 XI. The Cities of Asia
first as the official capital, and Sardis boldly styled itself
** first metropolis of Asia, of Lydia, of Hellenism " on the
arrogant coin represented in Fig. 9, p. 139. Similarly in
the Province Bithynia Nicomedia and Nicaea competed for
the primacy. So again in Cilicia Tarsus and Anazarba, in
one district of Macedonia Philippi and Amphipolis (see
p. 181), disputed with one another about those empty titles.
A temporary agreement between the three chief cities of
Asia, implying a lull in their rivalry, is attested by the
coin shown in Fig. 10, p. 174.
The prosperity, both material and intellectual, of the
cities was very great under the kings. As the dynasties
decayed, the Romans took over their power, and during
the disintegration of the Roman Republic and the long
Civil Wars the cities suffered severely from misgovernment
and extortion. But prosperity was restored by the triumph
of the new Empire, which was welcomed with the utmost
enthusiasm by the Graeco-Asiatic cities. The Roman
Empire did not, as a rule, need to found cities and intro-
duce new population in order to maintain its hold on Asia
Minor. It stood firmly supported by the loyalty of the
city population. Only on the South-Galatian frontier was
a line of Colonics — Antioch, Lystra, etc. — needed to pro-
tect the loyal cities from the unsubdued tribes of Mount
Taurus. The two Roman Colonics in Asia, Troas and
Parium, were founded for sentimental and economic rea-
sons, not to hold a doubtful land.
But the history of those cities, and the letters of the New
Testament, show that a very high degree of order, peace
and prosperity may result in a thoroughly unhealthy life
and a steady moral deterioration, unless the condition of
the public mind is kept sound by some salutary idea. The
Meeting of Greek and Asiatic 141
salutary idea which was needed to keep the Empire sound
and the cities healthy was what Paul preached ; and that
idea was the raising of the Gentiles to equality with the
Jews in religion and morality.
An amalgamation of Oriental and Hellenic religious
ideas had been sought by many philosophers, and was
practised in debased forms by impostors who traded on
the superstitions of the vulgar. It was left for Christianity
to place it before the world accomplished and perfected.
CHAPTER XII.
THE JEWS IN THE ASIAN CITIES.*
In chapter xi. we recognised how important an element
the Jewish colonists were in the cities which the Seleucid
kings founded or re-founded as strongholds of their power,
and as centres of the Graeco-Asiatic civilisation amid the
dreary ocean of Oriental monotony ; and we also saw what
were the reasons which made them trusty supporters of t'he
Seleucid regime and specially useful to counterbalance the
Greek element in those cities, all the more trusty and
useful because they were unpopular, and even hated by
their fellow-citizens.
Considering how important a part the Jewish Christians
must have played in the Asian Churches (Acts xviii. 20,
xix. 1-8, XX. 21), it is necessary to examine their position
in the cities more closely.^ The point of view taken in the
Apocalypse is that the Christians were the true Jews (just
as they constitute the real element in the city where they
dwell, see p. 41 f.), and the national Jews who clung to the
old Hebrew ideas were not the true Jews but merely the
synagogue of Satan. The Palestinian Jew who could ex-
press such a view had travelled far along the Pauline path
of development.
The Jews were too clever for their fellow-townsmen.
They regarded with supreme contempt the gross obscene
ritual and the vulgar superstitions of their neighbours ; but
(142)
The Jews in the Asian Cities 143
many of them were ready to turn those superstitions to
their own profit ; and a species of magic and soothsaying,
a sort of syncretism of Hebrew and pagan religious ideas,
afforded a popular and lucrative occupation to the sons of
Sceva in Ephesus and to many another Jew throughout
the Asiatic Greek cities. It was probably an art of this
kind that was practised in the Chaldoean's holy precinct
at Thyatira, which is mentioned in an inscription of the
Roman period (p. 323).
There were among those Jews, of course, persons of every
moral class, from the destined prophet, Saul of Tarsus,
whose eyes were fixed on the spiritual future of his people,
down to the lowest Jew who traded on the superstitions
and vices of those pagan dogs whom he despised and
abhorred, while he ministered to the excesses from which
in his own person he held aloof But among them all there
was, in contrast to the pagan population around them, a
certain unity of feeling and aspiration bred in them by their
religion, their holy books, the Sabbath meetings and the
weekly lessons and exhortations, the home training and
the annual family meal of the Passover. These made an
environment which exercised a strong influence even on
the most unworthy.
Of their numbers we can form no estimate, but they were
very great. In preparing for the final struggle in western
Asia Minor about 210 B.C., Antiochus III. moved 2,000
Jewish families from Babylonia into Lydia and Phrygia,
and that was a single act of one king, whose predecessors
and successors carried out the same policy on a similar
scale. The statistics which Cicero gives, when he describes
how a Roman Governor in 66 B.C. arrested the half-shekel
tribute which the Jews sent to Jerusalem, show a very large
144 -^I^- The Jews in the Asian Cities
Jewish population in Phrygia and a large Jewish population
in Lydia.
Except in a few such references history is silent about
that great Jewish population of Asia Minor. But inscrip-
tions are now slowly revealing, by here a trace and there a
trace, that nobles and officers under the Roman Empire
who have all the outward appearance of ordinary Roman
provincial citizens were really part of the Phrygian Jewish
population.^ The original Jews of Asia Minor seem to
have perished entirely, for the Turkish Jews of the present
day are Spanish-speaking Jews, whose ancestors were ex-
pelled from Spain by the most famous of Spanish sovereigns
and sheltered in Turkey by Mohammedan Sultans. In the
dearth of evidence one can only speculate as to their fate.
Reasons have elsewhere been stated showing ^ that a con-
siderable part of that original Jewish population adopted
Christianity, and thus lost their isolation and cohesion, and
became merged in the Christian Empire of the fourth and
following centuries after Christ.
As to those Jews, very many in number, who clung un-
falteringly to their own faith, what was likely to be their
fate in the Christian Empire ? The Eastern Empire was
largely Greek in language and in spirit alike ; and any one
who has become familiar with the intensity and bitterness
of the hatred that separates the Greek from the Jew, will
recognise that in general the alternative of extermination
or expulsion was presented to them. There was no place
and no mercy for the Jew in the Greek Christian Empire.
The barbarous lands of Europe and the steppes and villages
of Russia were a gentler home to them than the most civil-
ised of lands.
When one thinks of the character of the Hellenic cities,
The Jews in the Asian Cities 145
one must ask how and on what conditions the Tews were
able to live in them.
When the Jews were present in such a city merely as
resident aliens, their position is easier to understand. It
was quite usual for strangers to reside in a Greek city for
purposes of trade, and even to become permanent inhabi-
tants with their families. But, as has been already pointed
out, there was no ordinary way by which such inhabitants
could attain the citzenship. They and their descendants
continued to rank only as resident aliens. It was easy
for them to retain and practise their own religious rites.
Strangers naturally brought their religion with them ; and
their regular custom was to form an association among
themselves for the common practice of their own rites.
Such religious associations were numerous and recognised
by law and custom ; and Jewish residents could carry their
religion with them under this legal form.
It was in this way as a rule that foreign religions spread
in the Greek cities. The foreign Asiatic rites, by their
more impressive and enthusiastic character, attracted de-
votees, especially among the humbler and less educated
Greeks. Thus Oriental cults spread in such cities as
Corinth, Athens, and other trading centres, in spite of the
fact that those pagan cults were essentially non-proselytis-
ing, and preferred to keep their bounds narrow and to
restrict the advantages of their religion to a small number.
Similarly the Jewish association, with its synagogue or
place of prayer by sea-shore or river bank,^ attracted at-
tention and proselytes, though it repelled and roused the
hatred of the majority, because it was "so strange and
mysterious and incomprehensible to the ordinary pagan,
with its proud isolation, its lofty morality, its superiority
146 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
to pagan ideas of life, its unhesitating confidence in its
superiority". Thus the Jews became a power even where
they ranked only as aliens.
It is much more difficult to understand the position of
the Jews in those Hellenic cities where they possessed the
rights of citizenship. Now, as a rule, in the cities founded
by the Seleucid kings, the Jews were actually citizens.^
But it was to the ancient mind an outrage and an almost
inconceivable thing, that people could be fellow-citizens
without engaging in the worship of the same city gods.
The bond of patriotism was really a religious bond. The
citizen was encompassed by religious duties from his cradle
to his grave. It was practically impossible for the Jew to
be a citizen of a Greek city in the ordinary way. Some
special provision was needed.
That special provision was made by the Seleucid kings
in founding their cities. It was a noteworthy achievement,
and a real step in the history of human civilisation and
institutions, when they succeeded in so widening the es-
sential theory of the Greek city as to enable the Jew to
live in it as an integral part of it. The way in which this
result was attained must be clearly understood, as it throws
much light on the position of the Jews in the Graeco-
Asiatic cities.
The Greek city was never simply an aggregation of
citizens. The individual citizens were always grouped in
bodies, usually called " Tribes " (^uXai), and the " Tribes "
made up the city.'^ This was a fundamental principle of
Greek city organisation, and must form the starting-point
of all reasoning on the subject. The city was an associa-
tion of groups, not of individuals. It is generally admitted
that the groups were older than the institution of cities,
The Jews in the Asian Cities 147
being a survival of a more primitive social system. As
Mr. Greenidge says, Rotnan Public Life, p. 66 : " Simple
membership of a State, which was not based on member-
ship of some lower unit, was inconceivable to the Graeco-
Roman world ". In the Seleucid City-States that " lower
unit" was generally called the "Tribe".
The " Tribe " was united by a religious bond (as was
every union or association of human beings in the Graeco-
Roman world) : the members met in the worship of a
common deity (or deities), and their unity lay in their
participation in the same religion. It was, therefore, as
utterly impossible for a Jew to belong to an ordinary
Tribe, as it was for him to belong to an ordinary Hellenic
city.
But, just as it was possible for a group of Jewish aliens
to reside in a Greek city and practise their own religious
rites in a private association, so it was possible to enrol a
body of Jewish citizens in a special " Tribe " (or equivalent
aggregation), which was united without any bond of pagan
religion. That this must have been the method followed
by the Seleucid kings is practically certain (so far as
certainty can exist in that period of history), though the
fact cannot everywhere be demonstrated in the absence of
records. Josephus mentions that in Alexandria the "Tribe"
of the Jews was called " Macedonians," i.e. all Jews who
possessed the Alexandrian citizenship were enrolled in
" the Tribe Macedones " : this " Tribe " consisted of Jews
only, as Josephus' words imply.^ and as was obviously ne-
cessary (for what Greek would or could belong to a Tribe
which consisted mainly of the multitude of Jews with
whom the rest of the Alexandrian population was almost
constantly at war?)
148 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
The example of Alexandria may be taken as a proof
that, by a sort of legal fiction, an appearance of Hellenism
was given to the Jewish citizens in a Greek City-State,
It was of the essence of both Ptolemaic and Seleucid cities
that they should be centres of Hellenic civilisation and
education. In the period of which we are treating the
term " Hellenes " did not imply Greek blood and race, but
only language and education and social manners. The
Jews could never be, in the strict sense, Hellenes, for their
manners and ways of thinking were too diverse from the
Greek ; but by enrolling them in a " Tribe," and giving
this " Tribe " a Greek name and outward appearance, the
Seleucid and Ptolemaic kings made them members of a
city of Hellenes.
But the other difficulty remained. There was a religious
bond uniting the whole city. The entire body of citizens
was knit together by their common religion ; and the Jews
stood apart from this city cultus, abhorring and despising
it.
The Seleucid practice trampled under foot this religious
difficulty by creating an exception to the general principle.
The Jews were simply declared by the founder of the
dynasty, Seleucus, and his successors to be citizens, and yet
free to disregard the common city cultus. They were ab-
solved from the ordinary laws and regulations of the city,
if these conflicted with the Jewish religion : especially, they
could not be required to appear in court, or take any part
in public life, on the Sabbath. Certain regulations were
modified to suit Jewish scruples. When allowances of oil
were given to the citizens, the royal law ordered that an
equivalent in money should be given to the Jewish citizens,
whose principles forbade them to use oil that a Gentile had
The Jews in the Asian Cities 149
handled or made. Their Hellenic fellow-citizens were never
reconciled to this. It seemed to them an outrage that mem-
bers of the city should despise and reject the gods of the
city. This rankled in their minds, a wound that could not
be healed. Time after time, wherever a favourable op-
portunity seemed to offer itself, they besought their masters
— Greek king or Roman emperor— to deprive the Jews of
their citizenship : for example, their argument to Agrippa
in 15 B.C. was that fellow-citizens ought to reverence the
same gods.^
Therein lay the sting of the case to the Greeks or Hellenes.
The Jews never merged themselves in the Hellenic unity.
They always remained outside of it, a really alien body. In
a time when patriotism was identified with community of
religion, it was not possible to attain true unity in those
mixed States. A religious revolution was needed, and to
be effective it must take the direction of elevating thought.
Then one great man, with the true prophet's insight, saw
that unity could be introduced only by raising the Gentiles
to a higher level through their adoption of the Jewish
morality and religion ; and to that man's mind this was
expressed as the coming of the Messiah, an idea which
was very differently conceived by different minds. Else-
where we have attempted to show the effect upon St. Paul
of this idea as it was forced on him in his position at Tarsus,
which was pre-eminently the meeting-place of East and
West.0
It follows inevitably from the conditions, that there can
never have been a case of a single and solitary Jewish
citizen in a Hellenic city." It was impossible for a ]qv^ to
face the religious difficulty in an ordinary Greek city. He
could not become a member of an ordinary " Tribe " : he
150 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
could become a member of a Hellenic city only where the
act of some superior power had altered the regular Greek
constitution in favour of the Jews as a whole. It may be
set aside as impossible, as opposed to all evidence and
reasonable inference, either that an ordinary Hellenic city
would voluntarily set aside its own fundamental principles
in order to welcome its most hated enemies and most
dangerous commercial rivals, or that the superior power
would or could violate the constitution of the city in favour
of a single individual. Where Jews are proved or believed
to have been citizens of a Hellenic city, the origin of their
right must lie in a general principle laid down by a superior
power, accompanied by the introduction of a body of Jewish
citizens sufficiently strong to support one another and main-
tain their own unity and religion.
»
But might not a Jew occasionally desire the Hellenic
citizenship for the practical advantages it might offer in
trade ? He might desire those advantages in some or many
cases ; but they could not be got without formal admission
to a "Tribe," and if he were admitted to an ordinary
Hellenic Tribe through a special decree, he must either
participate in its religion or sacrifice the advantages which
he aimed at. In fact, it may be doubted whether any per-
son who avoided the meetings and ceremonies of the tribes-
men could have retained the membership. The Jew must
either abandon his nation and his birthright absolutely, or
he must stand outside of the Hellenic citizenship, except in
those cities whose constitution had been widened by the
creation of a special " Tribe " or similar body for Jews.
The case may be set aside as almost inconceivable that
any Jew in the pre-Roman period, except in the rarest
cases, absolutely disowned his birthright and was willing
The Jews in the Asian Cities 151
to merge himself in the ordinary ranks of Hellenic citizen-
ship. Professor E. Schiirer has emphasised the thoroughly
Hebraic character even of the most Hellenised Jews who
had settled outside Palestine ; " and there can be no doubt
that he is right. They were a people of higher education
and nobler views than the Gentiles ; and they could not
descend entirely to the Gentile level. Even the lowest
Jew who made his living out of Gentile superstitions or
vices usually felt, as we may be sure, that he was of a
higher stock, and was not willing to become a Gentile
entirely.
Moreover, the race hatred was too strong. The Greeks
would not have permitted it, even if a Jew had desired it.
The Greeks had no desire to assimilate the Jews to them-
selves ; they only desired to be rid of them.
The position of the Jews in the Ionian cities is illustrated
by an incident that occurred in 15 B.C. There was a body
of Jews in Ephesus ; and the other citizens, i.e. the Hellenes,
tried to induce Agrippa to expel these on the ground that
they would not take part in the religion of the city. Their
argument is instructive. They appealed to the settlement
of the Ephesian constitution by Antiochus H., 261-246
B.C., as authoritative; and this proves that there had been
no serious change in the principles of the Ephesian con-
stitution since that time.
That body of Jews in Ephesus did not consist simply
of non-citizens, resident (perhaps for many generations) in
the city for purposes of trade. That there were Ephesian
citizens among them is clearly implied in the pleading
of their fellow-citizens : the Hellenes of Ephesus made no
charge against Jewish strangers : in the forefront of their
case they put their claim that the Hellenes alone had any
152 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
right to the citizenship, which was the gift of Antiochus
II. These words are useless and unnecessary, unless there
was a body of Jews claiming to be citizens of Ephesus,
whom the Greeks desired to eject from the citizenship.
They came to Agrippa asking permission, not to expel
Jewish strangers from the town, but to deprive the Jews
of their participation in the State.*
Moreover, the next words quoted from the argument of
the Hellenes are even stronger : they put the case that the
Jews are kinsmen and members of the same race with
themselves, " If the Jews are kinsmen to us, they ought
to worship our gods ". The only conceivable kinship
between Jews and Greeks was that which they acquired
through common citizenship. The idea that common citi-
zenship implies and produces kinship is very characteristic
of ancient feeling and language. We note in passing
that this idea occurs in St. Paul, Rom. xvi. 7, 1 1, where
the word " kinsmen " will be understood as denoting Tar-
sian Jews by those who approach the Epistles from the
side of ordinary contemporary Greek thought. It can
hardly mean Jews simply (as "kinsmen according to the
flesh," crvvyevel^ Kara o-dpKa, does in Rom, ix. 3) ; for many
other persons in the same list are not so called, though they
are JeWs. Andronicus and a few others are characterised
as members of the same city and "Tribe" as Paul.
The Jewish rights, therefore, must have originated from
Antiochus II. Now, throughout his reign, that king was
struggling with Ptolemy King of Egypt for predominance
in the Ionian cities ; and the constitution which he intro-
duced in Ephesus must have been intended to attach the
city to his side, partly by confirming its rights and free-
dom, partly by introducing a new body of colonists whose
The Jews in the Asian Cities 153
loyalty he could depend upon ; and among those colonists
were a number of Jews.
This conclusion . seems inevitable ; and Professor E.
Schiirer has rightly held it. But the common view has
been hitherto that Antiochus II. merely gave freedom to
the Ionian cities, including Ephesus ; and even so com-
petent an authority as Professor Wilcken adopts the
prevalent view.^^ What Antiochus gave was not mere
freedom in our vague sense, but a definite constitution.
The ancients knew well that freedom among a large body of
men is impossible without a constitution and written laws.
It is not likely to be suggested by any scholar that some
Jews might have been made Ephesian citizens, when the
resident aliens who had helped in the war against Mithri-
dates were granted citizenship by the Ephesian State,^*
No new Tribes were then instituted ; the constitution re-
mained undisturbed ; and those aliens would have to accept
enrolment in one of the pagan groups or " Tribes," out of
which the city was constituted ; and this we have seen that
Jews could not accept. If there was a body of Jewish
citizens in Ephesus (as seems certain), they must have been
placed there by some external authority ; and, as we have
seen, the constitution was permanently settled by Antiochus
II., so that no new Tribes had been instituted and no
modification by external authority had been made.
It is pointed out in chapter xvii. that a new Tribe, whose
name is unknown (because it was changed afterwards to
Sebaste), was instituted at this time for the new settlers
whom Antiochus introduced. He doubtless brought colon-
ists of several nationalities, and avoided any pagan religious
bond of Tribal unity. The Jews constituted a special division
(Chiliastys) in this Tribe.
154 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
Antiochus acted similarly in several of th^ Ionian cities,
possibly even in them all. His changes are recorded to
have been made in the Ionian cities, and not to have been
confined to Ephesus. The case of Ephesus may be taken
as typical of many other Asian cities ; yet there are few
cities in which it can be proved conclusively that there was
a body of Jewish citizens. As a rule, the individual Jews
escape our notice : only general facts and large numbers
have been recorded.
A little more is known about the Jews of the Lycus
Valley through the extremely important inscriptions pre-
served at Hierapolis. Laodicea and Hierapolis, lying
so near one another, in full view across the valley, must
be taken as a closely connected pair, and all that is re-
corded about the Jews of Hierapolis may be taken as
applying to those of Laodicea (apart from certain differ-
ences in the constitution of the two cities). The subject
will therefore find a more suitable place in chapter xxix.
In each city where a body of Jewish citizens was formed,
it was necessary to frame a set of rules safeguarding their
peculiar position and rights ; for no rights could exist in
a Greek city without formal enactment in a written law.
This body of law is called in an inscription of Apameia in
Phrygia " the Law of the Jews " ; and the character of the
reference shows beyond question that municipal regula-
tions, and not the Mosaic Law, are meant under that name.
Apameia, therefore, must have contained a class of Jewish
citizens ; and its character and history have been investi-
gated elsewhere.^^ A similar law and name must have
existed in the other cities where there was a body of
Jewish citizens.
The Jews had come, or been brought, into Asia Minor
The Jews in the Asian Cities 155
during the time when Palestine was growing Hellenised in
the warmth of Seleucid favour. In their new homes they
were even more kindly treated, and all the conditions of
their life were calculated to strengthen their good feeling
to the kings, and foster the Hellenising tendency among
them, at least in externals. They necessarily used the
Greek language ; they became accustomed to Greek sur-
roundings ; they learned to appreciate Greek science and
education ; and doubtless they did not think gymnastic
exercises and sports such an abomination as the authors
of First and Second Maccabees did.
But, as Professor E. Schiirer and others have rightly ob-
served, there is not the slightest reason to think that the
Jews of Asia Minor ceased to be true to their religion and
their nation in their own way : they really commanded a
wider outlook over the world and a more sane and balanced
judgment on truth and right than their brethren in Pales-
tine. They looked to Jerusalem as their centre and the
home of their religion. They contributed to maintain the
Temple with unfailing regularity. They went on pil-
grimage in great numbers, and the pilgrim ships sailed
regularly every spring from the .^gean harbours for
Caesareia.^® They were in patriotism as truly Jews as the
straitest Pharisee in Jerusalem. Doubtless Paul was far
from being the only Jew of Asia Minor who could boast
that he was "a Pharisee sprung from Pharisees ". ^^ Yet
they were looked at with disfavour by their more strait-
laced Palestinian brethren, and regarded as little better
than backsliders and Sadducees. They had often, we may
be sure, to assert their true Pharisaism and spirituality, like
Paul, in answer to the reproach of being mere Sadducees
with their Greek speech and Greek ways.
156 XII. The Jews in the Asian Cities
In truth, there was great danger lest they should forget the
essence of their Hebrew faith. Many of them undoubtedly
did so, though they still remained Jews in name and pro-
fession, and in contempt for the Gentiles, even while they
learned from them and cheated them and made money by
pandering to their superstitions. Many such Jews were, in
very truth, only " a Synagogue of Satan " (as at Smyrna and
Philadelphia), but still they continued to be " a Synagogue ".
The national feeling was sound, though the religious feeling
was blunted and degraded.
In such surroundings was Saul of Tarsus brought up, a
member of a family which moved both in the narrow and
exclusive circle of rich Tarsian citizenship and in the still
more proud and aristocratic circle of Roman citizenship.
In his writings we see how familiar he was with the Graeco-
Asiatic city life, and how readily illustrations from Greek
games and Roman soldiers and triumphs suggest themselves
to him. In him are brought to a focus all the experiences
of the Jews of Asia Minor. He saw clearly from childhood
that the Maccabaean reaction had not saved Palestine, that
the Pharisaic policy of excluding Gentile civilisation and
manners had failed, and that the only possible salvation
for his nation was to include the Gentiles by raising them
to the Jewish level in morality and religion. Judaism, he
saw, must either lose its vigour amid the sunshine of pros-
perity in Asia Minor, and gradually die, or it must con-
quer the Gentiles by assimilating them. The issue was,
however, certain. The promise of God had been given and
could not fail. This new prophet saw that the time of the
Messiah and His conquest of the Gentiles had come.
And amid such surroundings the Jew that wrote the
Apocalypse had lived for years. He had come much in
The Jews in the Asian Cities 157
contact both with the Hellenist Jews of the Diaspora and
with the Christianised pagans in the Asian cities. He
had been all the more influenced by those surroundings,
because his whole outlook on the world had long ago
been modified by the ardent spirit of St. Paul. He was
still bound to Jewish models and literary forms in com-
posing the Apocalypse ; but sometimes the spirit and the
thought which he expresses in those forms are essentially
non-Judaic, though their wider character is concealed from
most of the commentators under the outward show of Ju-
daism. His growing mind was on the point of bursting
the last Jewish fetters that still contained it, the reverence
for traditional Jewish literary forms ; it had not yet done so,
but in the composition of this book it was working towards
full freedom.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PAGAN CONVERTS IN THE EARLY CHURCH.
In one respect Ignatius is peculiarly instructive for the
study of the early Asian Churches, in which the converts
direct from Paganism must have been a numerous and
important body. This peculiar position and spirit of Pagan
converts (coming direct from Paganism), as distinguished
from Jews or those Pagans who had come into the Church
through the door of the Jewish synagogue, must engage our
attention frequently during the study of the Seven Letters ;
and Ignatius will prove the best introduction.
The Pagan converts had not the preliminary education
in Jewish thoughts and religious ideas which a previous
acquaintance with the service of the synagogue had given
those Gentiles who had been among " the God-fearing "
before they came over to Christianity. The direct passage
from Paganism to Christianity must have left a different
mark on their nature. Doubtless, some or even many of
them came from a state of religious indifference or of vicious
and degraded life. But others, and probably the majority
of them, must have previously had religious sensibility
and religious aspirations. Now what became of those early
religious ideas during their later career as Christians ? If
they had previously entertained any religious aspirations
and thoughts, these must have sought expression, and occa-
sionally met with stimulus and found partial satisfaction in
(158)
The Pagan Converts in the Early Church 159
some forms of Pagan worship or speculation. Did these
men, when they as Christians looked back on their Pagan
life, regard those moments of religious experience as being
merely evil and devilish ; or did they see that such actions
had been the groping and effort of nature towards God,
giving increased strength and vitality to their longing after
God, and that those moments had been really steps in their
progress, incomplete but not entirely wrong ?
To this inevitable question Ignatius helps us to find an
answer, applicable to some cases, though not, of course, to
all. That he had been a convert from Paganism is inferred
with evident justification by Lightfoot from his letter to
the Romans, § 9. He was born into the Church out of due
time, imperfect in nature, by an irregular and violent birth,
converted late, after a career which was to him a lasting
cause of shame and humiliation in his new life. That
feeling might be considered as partly a cause of the
profound humility which he afterwards felt towards the
long-established Ephesian Church. Hence he writes to
the Romans : " I do not give orders to you as Peter and
Paul did : they were Apostles, I am a convict ; they were
free, but I am a slave to this very hour". In the last
expression we may see a reference, not to his having been
literally a slave (as many do), but to his having been for-
merly enslaved to the passions and desires of Paganism ;
from this slavery he can hope to be set free completely
only through death ; death will give him liberty, and
already even in the journey to Rome and the preparation
to meet death, ** I am learning to put away every desire ".
The remarkable passage in Eph. § 9 must arrest every
reader's attention : " Ye are all companions in the way,
God-bearers, shrine-bearers, Christ-bearers, and bearers of
i6o XIII. The Pagan Converts
your holy things, arrayed from head to foot in the com-
mandments of Jesus Christ ; and I, too, taking part in the
festival, am permitted by letter to bear you company".
The life of the Ephesian Christians is pictured after the
analogy of a religious procession on the occasion of a
festival ; life for them is one long religious festival and
procession. Now at this time it is impossible to suppose
that public processions could have formed part of their
worship. Imperial law and custom, popular feeling, and
the settled rule of conduct in the Church, all alike forbade
such public and provocative display of Christian worship.
Moreover it is highly improbable that the Church had as
yet come to the stage when such ceremonial was admitted
as part of the established ritual : the ceremonies of the
Church were still of a very simple and purely private
character. It was only when the ceremonial could be per-
formed in public that it grew in magnificence and outward
show.
Yet the passage sets before the readers in the most vivid
way the picture of such a festal scene, with a troop of
rejoicing devotees clad in the appropriate garments, bear-
ing their religious symbols and holy things in procession
through the streets. That is exactly the scene which was
presented to the eyes of all Ephesians several times every
year at the great festivals of the goddess ; and Ignatius
had often seen such processions in his own city of Antioch.
He cannot but have known what image his words would
call up in the minds of his readers, and he cannot but have
intended to call up that image, point by point, and detail
after detail. The heathen devotees were dressed for the
occasion, mostly in white garments,^ with garlands of the
sacred foliage (whatever tree or plant the deity preferred),
In the Early Church i6i
while many of the principal personages wore special dress
of a still more sacred character, which marked them as
playing for the time the part of the god and of his attend-
ant divine beings, and some were adorned with the golden
crown either of their deity or of the Imperial religion.^ But
the Ephesian Christians wear the orders of Christ. The
heathen devotees carried images of their gods, both the
principal deities and many associated beings. The Chris-
tian Ephesians in their life carry God and carry Christ
always with them, for, as Ignatius has said in the previous
sentence, their conduct in the ordinary affairs of life spirit-
ualised those affairs, inasmuch as they did everything in
Christ. Many of the heathen devotees carried in their
processions small shrines containing representations of their
gods ; but the body of every true right-living Christian is
the temple and shrine of his God. The heathen carried in
the procession many sacred objects, sometimes openly
displayed, sometimes concealed in boxes (like the sacred
mystic things, to. anropp'qTa, which were brought from
Eleusis to Athens by one procession in order that a few
days later they might be carried back by the great mystic
procession to Eleusis for the celebration of the Mysteries) ; ^
and at Ephesus an inscription of this period contains a long
enumeration of various objects and ornaments which were
to be carried in one of the great annual processions. But
the Christians carry holiness itself with them, wherever they
go and whatever they do.
How utterly different is the spirit of this passage from
the Jewish attitude towards the heathen world I Every
analogy that Ignatius here draws would have been to the
Jews an abomination, the forbidden and hateful thing. It
would have been loathsome to them to compare the things
1 62 XIII, The Pagan Converts
of God with the things of idols or devils. Ignatius evi-
dently had never passed through the phase of Judaism ;
he had passed straight from Paganism to Christianity. He
very rarely quotes from the Old Testament, and when he
does his quotations are almost exclusively from Psalms and
Isaiah, the books which would be most frequently used by
Christians.
Hence he places his new religion directly in relation with
Paganism. Christianity spiritualises and enlarges and en-
nobles the ceremonial of the heathen ; but that ceremonial
was not simply rejected by him as abominable and vile, for
it was a step in the way of religion.
The point of view is noble and true, and yet it proved
to be the first step in the path that led on by insensible
degrees, during the loss of education in the Church, to the
paganising of religion and the transformation of the Pagan
deities into saints of the Church, Demeter into St. Deme-
trius, Achilles Pontarches into St. Phocas of Sinope, Posei-
don into St. Nicolas of Myra, and so on. From these
words of Ignatius it is easy to draw the moral, which
assuredly Ignatius did not dream of, that the Church
should express religious feeling in similar processions ; and,
as thought and feeling deteriorated, the step was taken.
The same true and idealised spirit is perceptible in other
parts of Ignatius's letters. In Eph. § lo he says : " Pray
continually for the rest of mankind {i.e. those who are not
Christians, and specially the Pagans), for there is in them a
hope of repentance. Give them the opportunity of learning
from your actions, if they will not hear you." The influence
of St. Paul's teaching is here conspicuous : by nature the
Gentiles do the things of the Law, if they only give theii
real nature free play, and do not degrade it (Rom. ii. i6).
In the Early Church 163
Ignatius felt strongly the duty he owed to his former co-
religionists, as Paul felt himself "a debtor both to Greeks
and to Barbarians"; and just as the term "debtor" implies
that Paul had received and felt himself bound to repay,'
such indubitably must have been the thought in the mind
of Ignatius. Ignatius learned the lesson from Paul, because
he was prepared to learn it. Many have read him and
have not learned it.
In this view new light is thrown on a series of passages
in the letters of Ignatius, some of which are obscure, and
one at least has been so little understood that the true
reading is by many editors rejected, though Lightfoot's
sympathetic feeling for Ignatius keeps him right, as it usu-
ally does ; and Zahn independently has decided in favour
of the same text.
One of the most characteristic and significant features in
the writings of Ignatius is the emphasis that he lays on
silence, as something peculiarly sacred and Divine. He
recurs to this thought repeatedly. Silence is characteristic
of God, speech of mankind. The more the bishop is silent,
the more he is to be feared (Eph. § 6). The acts which
Christ has done in silence are worthy of the Father ; and
he that truly possesses the Word of Christ is able even
to hear His silence, so as to be perfect, so that through
what he says he may be doing, and through his silence he
may be understood (Eph. § 15). And so again he is
astonished at the moderation of the Philadelphian bishop,
whose silence is more effective than the speech of others.
So far the passages quoted, though noteworthy, do not
imply anything more than a vivid appreciation of the value
of reserve, so that speech should convey the impression of
a latent and still unused store of strength. But the follow-
164 XIII. The Pagan Converts
ing passages do more ; they show that a certain mystic
and Divine nature and value were attributed by Ignatius to
Silence ; and in the light of those two passages, the words
quoted above from Eph. §15 are seen to have also a mystic
value.
In Eph. § 19 he speaks of the three great Christian
mysteries — the virginity of Mary, the birth of her Son, and
the death of the Lord, " three mysteries shouting aloud (in
the world of men), which were wrought in the Silence of
God ". In Magn. | 8 he speaks of God as having manifested
Himself through His Son, who is His Word that proceeded
from Silence.*
Now, we must ask what was the origin of this mystic
power that Ignatius assigns to Silence. Personally, I
cannot doubt that his mind and thought were influenced by
his recollection of the deep impression that certain Pagan
Mysteries had formerly made on him.
It is mentioned in the Philosophiimena, lib. v. (ed. Miller,
p. 117; ed. Cruice, p. 171), that "the great and wonderful
and most perfect mystery, placed before those who were
[at Eleusis] initiated into the second and higher order, was
a shoot of corn harvested in silence ". In this brief descrip-
tion a striking scene is set before us : the hushed expecta-
tion of the initiated, the contrast with the louder and more
crowded and dramatic scenes of the previous Mystic acts,
as in absolute silence the Divine life works itself out to an
end in the growing ear of corn, which is reaped before them.
There can be no doubt, amid all the obscurity which envel-
opes the Eleusinian ceremonial, that great part of the effect
which they produced on the educated and thoughtful, the
intellectual and philosophic minds, lay in the skilful, dra-
matically presented contrast between the earlier naturalistic
In the Early Church 165
life, set before them in scenes of violence and repulsive
horror, and the later reconciliation of the jarring elements
in the peaceful Divine life, as revealed for the benefit of
men by the Divine power, and shown on the mystic stage
as perfected in profound silence. Think of the hierophant,
a little before, shouting aloud, " a holy son Brimos the Lady
Brimo has borne," as the culmination of a series of outrages
and barbarities : then imagine the dead stillness, and the
Divine life symbolised to the imagination of the sympathetic
and responsive mystai in the growing and garnered ear of
the Divinely revealed corn which dies only to live again,
which is destroyed only to be useful.
The scene which we have described is mentioned only as
forming part of the Eleusinian Mysteries ; and it may be
regarded as quite probable that Ignatius had been initiated
at Eleusis. Initiation at Eleusis (which had in earlier times
been confined to the Athenian people) was widened in later
times so that all " Hellenes," i.e. all persons whose language
and education and spirit were Greek, were admitted. Thus,
for example, Apollonius of Tyana, who had been rejected in
A.D. 51 on the ground, not that he was a foreigner, but that
he was suspected of magic, was admitted to initiation in A.D.
55, But it is also true that (as is pointed out in Dr. Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 126) "the Mysteries celebrated
at different religious centres competed with one another in
attractiveness," and they all borrowed from one another
and " adapted to their own purposes elements which seemed
to be attractive in others ". Hence it may be that Ignatius
had witnessed that same scene, or a similar one, in other
Mysteries.
That the highest and most truly Divine nature is silent
must have been the lesson of the Eleusinian Mysteries, just
1 66 XIII. The Pagan Converts
as surely as they taught — not by any formal dogmatic
teaching (for the words uttered in the representation of the
Divine drama before the initiated were concerned only with
the dramatic action), but through the impression produced
on those who comprehended the meaning of the drama,
and (as the ancients say) it required a philosophic spirit
and a reverent religious frame of mind to comprehend —
that the life of man is immortal. Both those lessons were
to Ignatius stages in the development of his religious con-
sciousness ; and the way in which, and the surroundings
amid which, he had learned them affected his conception
and declaration of the principles, the Mysteries of Chris-
tianity. Marcellus of Ancyra, about the middle of the
fourth century, was influenced probably in the same way,
when he declared that God was along with quietness (elva*
Tov deov Kai riva rjcrv^iav afia tw deoji) and that, as early
heretics had taught, in the beginning there was God and
Silence (^v 0eo9 kuI aty^).
The importance of Silence in the mystic ritual is fully
appreciated by Dr. Dieterich in his valuable and fascin-
ating book. Erne Mithrasliturgie (Leipzig, 1903) p. 42.
Among the preparatory instructions given to the Mystes
was this: "Lay thy right finger on thy mouth and say,
Silence ! Silence ! Silence ! symbol of the living imperish-
able God ! " Silence is even addressed in prayer, " Guard
me, Silence". Dr. Dieterich remarks that the capital S
is needed in such an invocation.
Lightfoot considers (see his note on Trail. § 2) that when
Ignatius speaks of the mysteries of Christianity, he has no
more in his mind than " the wide sense in which the word
is used by St. Paul, revealed truths''. But we cannot agree
in this too narrow estimate. To Ignatius there lies in the
In the Early Church 167
term a certain element of power. To him the " mysteries "
of the Faith would have been very insufficiently described
by such a coldly scientific definition as "revealed truths":
such abstract lifeless terms were to him, as in Col. ii. 8,
mere " philosophy and vain deceit ". The " mysteries "
were living, powerful realities, things of life that could
move the heart and will of men and remake their nature.
He uses the term, I venture to think, in a similar yet
slightly different sense from Paul, who employs it very
frequently. Paul, too, attaches to it something of the same
idea of power; for "the mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. ii.
7) is to him a real and strong enemy. But Ignatius seems
to attach to the " mysteries " even more reality and objec-
tivity than Paul does.^
Surely Ignatius derived his idea of the "mysteries"
partly at least from the experiences of his Pagan days.
He had felt the strong influence of the greater Mysteries,
to which some of the greatest thinkers among the Greeks
bear testimony; and the Christian principles completed
and perfected the ideas which had begun in his Pagan
days.
This idea, that the religious conceptions of Paganism
served as a preparatory stage leading up to Christianity,
was held by many, as well as by Ignatius. Justin Martyr
gave clear expression to it, and Eusebius works it out in his
Prceparatio Evangelica. Those who were conscious that a
real development of the religious sense had begun in their
own mind during their Pagan days and experiences, and had
been completed in their Christian life, must inevitably have
held it ; and there were many Pagans of a deeply religious
nature, some of whom became Christians.
The change of spirit involved in this development through
1 68 XIII. The Pagan Converts
Paganism to Christianity is well expressed by a modern
poet : —
Girt in the panther-fells, '
Violets in my hair,
Down I ran through the woody dells.
Through the morning wild and fair, — ■
To sit by the road till the sun was high,
That I might see some god pass by.
Fluting amid the thyme
I dreamed through the golden day,
Calling through melody and rhyme :
" lacchus ! Come this way, —
From harrowing Hades like a king.
Vine leaves and glories scattering."
Twilight was all rose-red,
When, crowned with vine and thorn,
Came a stranger god from out the dead;
And his hands and feet were torn.
I knew him not, for he came alone :
I knew him not, whom I fain had known.
He said : " For love, for love,
I wear the vine and thorn".
He said: " For love, for love.
My hands and feet were torn :
For love, the winepress Death I trod ".
. And I cried in pain : " O Lord my God ".
— Mrs. Rachel Annand Taylor, Poems, 1904.
That the same view should be strongly held in the Asian
Churches was inevitable. That often it should be pressed
to an extreme was equally inevitable ; and one of its extreme
forms was the Nicolaitan heresy, which the writer of the
Seven Letters seems to have regarded as the most pressing
and immediate danger to those Churches. That writer was
a Jew, who was absolutely devoid of sympathy for that
whole side of thought, alike in its moderate and its extreme
In the Early Church 169
forms. The moderate forms seemed to him lukewarm ; the
extreme forms were a simple abomination.
Such was the view of one school or class in the Christian
Church. The opposite view, that the Pagan Mysteries were
a mere abomination, is represented much more strongly in
the Christian literature. There is not necessarily any con-
tradiction between them. Ignatius felt, as we have said,
that his Pagan life was a cause of lasting humiliation and
shame to him, even though he was fully conscious that his
religious sensibility had been developing through it. We
need not doubt that he would have endorsed and approved
every word of the charges which the Christian apologists
made against the Mysteries. Both views are true, but
both are partial : neither gives a complete statement of the
case.
The mystic meaning that lay in even the grossest cere-
monies of the Eleusinian and other Mysteries has been
rightly insisted upon by Miss J. E. Harrison in h^r Prolego-
mena to the Study of Greek Religion (especially chapter
viii.), a work well" worthy of being studied. Miss Harrison
has the philosophic insight which the ancients declare to
be necessary in order to understand and learn from the
Mysteries. Their evil side is to her non-existent, and the
old Christian writers who inveighed against the gross and
hideous rites enacted in the Mysteries are repeatedly de-
nounced by her in scathing terms as full of unclean imagin-
ings— though she fully admits, of course, the truth of the
facts which they allude to or describe in detail. The
authoress, standing on the lofty plane of philosophic ideal-
ism, can see only the mystic meaning, while she is too far
removed above the ugliness to be cognisant of it. But to
shut one's eyes to the evil does not annihilate it for the
I70 XIII. Pagan Converts in the Early Church
world, though it may annihilate it for the few who shut
their eyes. Plato in the Second Book of the Republic is as
emphatic as Firmicus or Clemens in recognising the harm
that those ugly tales and acts of the gods did to the mass of
the people. This must all be borne in mind while studying
her brilliant work.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA.
What thou seest, ivrite in a book, and send to the Seven Churches^; unto
Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and
unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Some manuscripts read in this passage " f/ie Seven Churches
which are in Asia " ; but the added words are certainly an
interpolation from the introduction, verse 4, ^^ John to the
Seven ChurcJies which are in Asia". The addition states
correctly the limits of the area from which the Seven
Churches were selected ; but it loses the emphasis implied
in the simple phrase " The Seven Churches". From the
context it is clear that they all belonged to Asia, i.e., to
the Roman Province called by that name ; but here, in the
very beginning of John's vision, the Seven are mentioned
as a recognised number, already to the hearer and the
readers.
This remarkable expression, " The Seven Churches"
must arrest the attention of every reader. At the first
glance one might gather that only those Seven Churches
existed in the Province Asia, and that the Revelation had
been composed at an early date when there were no more
Churches than the Seven. But that is impossible. There
never was a time when those Seven Churches existed, and
no others. Their situation shows that they could not well
be the first seven to be founded : several other unnamed
(171)
172 XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
Churches certainly must have been formed before Thyatira
and Philadelphia. Moreover, references in the New Testa-
ment prove beyond question the existence of various other
Churches in the Province before the earliest date at which
the composition of the Apocalypse of John has ever been
placed. A survey of the chief facts regarding those other
Churches will prove instructive for the present investiga-
tion.
(i) Already during the residence of St. Paul in Ephesus,
A.D. 54 to 56, "«// they which dwelt in Asia heard the
word" (Acts xix. 10). That would never have been re-
corded, except as an explanation of the rapid spread of the
new religion and the growth of numerous Churches.
(2) Already in A.D. 61 the Church of Colossae was the
recipient of a letter from St. Paul ; he asks the Colossians
to cause that his letter be read in the Church of the Laodi-
ceans, and that "ye also read the letter from Laodicea"
(Col. iv. 16) ; and he mentions a body of Christians, who
must have constituted a Church, at Hierapolis (Col. iv. 13).
In this case it is evident that the three Churches of the
Lycus Valley were considered by every one to stand in
close relation to one another. They are very near, Hiera-
polis being about six miles north, and Colossae eleven
miles east, from Laodicea, and they are grouped together
as standing equal in the affection and zeal of the Colos-
sian Epaphras. Any letter addressed to one of them was
regarded apparently by St. Paul as common to the other
two. This did not require to be formally stated about
Laodicea and Hierapolis, which are in full view of one
another on opposite sides of the glen ; but Colossae lay
in the higher glen of the Lycus. It has been suggested
that Hierapolis and Colossae perhaps ceased to be Churches,
The Seven Churches of Asia 173
because those cities may have been destroyed by an earth-
quake between A.D. 61 and 90.^ Such a supposition cannot
be entertained. There is not the slightest reason to think
that those cities were annihilated nbout that time. On the
contrary Hierapolis continued to grow steadily in wealth
and importance after this hypothetical destruction ; and, if
Colossas rather dwindled than increased, the reason lay in
its being more and more overshadowed by Laodicea. The
earthquakes of Asia Minor have not been of such a serious
nature, and seem rarely if ever to have caused more than
a passing loss and inconvenience. There was nothing in
such an event likely either to kill or to frighten away the
Christians of those two Churches.^
(3) Troas was the seat of a Church in A.D. 56 (2 Cor. ii.
12) and A.D. 57 (Acts xx. 7 ff.). It was then considered by
St. Paul to be " a door," through which access was opened
to a wide region that lay behind in the inner country : its
situation in respect of roads and communication made it
a specially suitable and tempting point of departure for
evangelisation ; it was a link in the great chain of Imperial
postal communication across the Empire ; and its impor-
tance lay in its relation to the other cities with which
it was connected by a series of converging roads. The
ordinary " overland " route from Rome to the East by the
Appian and the Egnatian Way crossed the <^gean from
Neapolis, the harbour of Philippi, to Troas, Pergamum, etc. ;
and there must have been continual communication, summer
and winter alike, between Neapolis and Troas.^ Places in
such a situation, where a change was made from land-travel
to sea-faring, offered a peculiarly favourable opportunity
for intercourse and the spread of a new system of thought
and life.^ Troas, therefore, undoubtedly played a very im-
174 XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
portant part in the development of the Asian Church ; yet
it is not mentioned among the Seven.
(4) It may also be regarded as practically certain that
the great cities which lay on the important roads connecting
those Seven leading Cities with one another had all " heard
the word," and that most of them were the seats of Churches,
when the Seven Letters were written. We remember that,
not long afterwards, Magnesia and Tralleis, the two im-
portant, wealthy and populous cities on the road between
Ephesus and Laodicea, possessed Churches of their own
FlO. 10. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, " First of Asia " (p. 175).
and bishops ; that they both sent deputations to salute,
console and congratulate the Syrian martyr Ignatius, when
he was conducted like a condemned criminal to face death
in Rome ; and that they both received letters from him.
With these facts in our mind we need feel no doubt that
those two Churches, and many others like them, took their
origin from the preaching of St. Paul's coadjutors and
subordinates during his residence in Ephesus, A.D. 54-56.
Magnesia inscribed on its coins the title "Seventh (city)
of Asia," referring doubtless to the order of precedence
The Seven Churches of Asia 175
among the cities as observed in the Common Council of the
Province, technically styled Commune Asice. This seems
to prove that there was some special importance attached
in general estimation to a group of seven representative
cities in Asia, which would be an interesting coincidence
with the Seven Churches. Of the seven cities implied in
the Magnesian title five may be enumerated with practical
certainty, viz., the three rivals " First of Asia," SmjTna,
Ephesus and Pergamum, along with Sardis and Cyzicus.
The remaining two seats were doubtless keenly contested
between Magnesia, Tralleis (one of the richest and greatest
in Asia), Alabanda (chief perhaps in Caria), Apamea (ranked
by Strabo, p. 577, next to Ephesus as a commercial centre
of the Province) and Laodicea ; but apparently at some
time under the Empire a decision by the Emperor, or by a
governor of the Province, or by the Council of Asia, settled
the precedence to some extent and placed Magnesia seventh.
Neither Thyatira nor Philadelphia, however, can have had
any reasonable claim to a place among those seven leading
cities of the Province.*
(5) Another city which can hardly have failed to possess
an important Church when the Seven Letters were written
is Cyzicus. Not merely was it one of the greatest cities of
the Province (as has been mentioned in the preceding
paragraph) : it also lay on one of the great routes by which
Christianity spread. It has been pointed out elsewhere
that the early Christianisation of Bith}-nia and Pontus was
not due (as has been commonly assumed) to missionaries
travelling by land from Syria across Asia [Minor to the
Black Sea coasts.^ Those cross-country routes from south
to north were little used at that period ; and it was only
during the last quarter of the first century that Cappadocia,
176 XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
which they traversed, began to be properly organised as a
Province; for before A.D. 74 Cappadocia was merely a
procuratorial district, i.e.^ it was governed in the interest of
the Emperor as successor of the old native kings by his
procurator, who administered it on the old native lines.
Moreover, it is stated that inner Pontus was hardly affected
by Christianity until the third century,^ while Pontus on the
coast was Christianised in the first century and the pagan
ritual had almost fallen into disuse there by a.d. 112, as
Pliny reported to Trajan. Those maritime regions there-
fore must have been Christianised by sea, in other words by
passengers on ships coming from " the parts of Asia " or
from Rome itself. On the route of such ships lay Cyzicus,
one of the greatest commercial cities of Asia Minor, which
must have attracted a certain proportion of the merchants
and passengers on those ships. It was along the great
routes of international communication that Christianity
spread first ; and Cyzicus can hardly have been missed as
the new thought swept along this main current of inter-
course. But Cyzicus has no place among the Seven
Churches, though it was the leading city and capital of a
great district in the north of the Province,
It is therefore evident that those Seven must have been
selected out of a much larger number of Churches, some of
them very important centres of thought and influence, for
some reason which needs investigation. Now it is inconceiv-
able that St. John should simply write to Seven Churches
taken at random out of the Province which had been so long
under his charge, and ignore the rest. One can understand
why St. Paul wrote (so far as his letters have been pre-
served) to some of his Churches and not to others : apart
from the fact that he doubtless sent more letters than have
The Seven Churches of Asia 177
been preserved, he wrote sporadically, under the spur of
urgent need, as a crisis occurred now in one of his Churches,
now in another. But St, John is here writing a series of
letters on a uniform plan, under the spur of one single im-
pulse ; and it is clearly intended that the Seven Churches
should be understood as in a way summing up the whole
Province. That could only be the case if each was in some
way representative of a small group of Churches, so that the
whole Seven taken together represented and summed up
the entire Province. Similarly, it is clear that the Church
of Asia taken as a whole is in its turn representative of the
entire Catholic Church.
Thus we can trace the outline of a complicated and
elaborate system of symbolism, which is very character-
istic of this book. There are seven groups of Churches in
Asia : each group is represented by one outstanding and
conspicuous member : these representatives are the Seven
Churches. These Seven representative Churches stand for
the Church of the Province ; and the Church of the Province,
in its turn, stands for the entire Church of Christ. Corre-
sponding to this sevenfold division in the Church, the out-
ward appearance and envisagement of the Divine Author of
the Seven Letters is divided into seven groups of attributes ;
and one group of attributes is assumed by Him in addressing
each of the Seven Churches, so that the openings of the
Seven Letters, put together, make up his whole outward
and visible character.
But how was this selection of the Seven Churches ac-
complished ? There are only two alternatives ; either the
selection was made on this occasion for the first time, or it
had in some way or other come into existence previously,
so that there were already Seven recognised and outstand-
178 XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
ing Churches of Asia. The first alternative seems generally
to have been accepted, but apparently without any serious
consideration. It seems to have been thought that the
sacred number, Seven, had a fascination for one who was
so much under the dominion of symbolism as the writer of
the Apocalypse evidently was. On this view, being pre-
sumably fascinated by the charm of that number, he chose
those Seven from the whole body of the Asian Churches,
and treated them as representative in the first place of the
Province and ultimately of the entire Catholic Church. But
it is impossible to acquiesce contentedly in this supposition.
There is no way of escaping the obvious implication in i. 4
and i. 1 1 , that those Seven were already known to the world
and established in popular estimation as " the Seven Asian
Churches," before the Vision came to St. John.
It is therefore necessary to adopt the second alternative.
As the Church of the great Province Asia gradually con-
solidated and completed its organisation, there came into
existence seven groups, and at the head or the centre of
each stood one of the Seven Churches. This process had
been completed up to this point before St. John wrote, and
affected the imagery of his vision.
The genesis of one of those groups can be traced at the
very beginning of the Christian history of the Province.
Already in A.D. 61 the letter to Laodicea and the letter
to Colossae were, as has been indicated above, treated
as common to a group of three Churches in the Lycus
Valley. But, although the Colossian letter was intended
to be circulated, it was written to the Church of Colossae
immediately and directly. In writing that letter St. Paul
had not in mind the group of Churches : there stood before
his imagination the Church of Colossae, and to it he ad-
The Seven Churches of Asia 179
dressed himself. In the primary intention it is a letter to
Colossae ; in a secondary intention it was made common
to the whole group. The same may be presumed to have
been the character of the unknown Laodicean letter.
The opinion has been advocated by some scholars that
the Laodicean letter was the one which is commonly known
as the Epistle to the Ephesians, and that it ought to be
regarded as a circular letter, copies of which were sent to
all the Asian Churches ; though in that case it might be
expected that the Colossians would receive a copy direct.
But Professor Rendel Harris has thrown serious doubt on
the view that Ephesians was a circular letter, by his very
ingenious argument that it must have been written as an
answer to a question (see Expositor^ 1898, Dec. p. 401 ff.) :
in that case it would be addressed to the Church which
had proposed the question to St. Paul.
In the facts just stated it seems to be implied that the
chief Churches of the Lycus Valley were already in A.D.
61 'regarded as practically common recipients of a letter
addressed to one. Their interests and needs were known
to one another, and were presumed to be very similar;
they were in constant intercourse with one another, and
especially Laodicea and Hierapolis were not far removed
from being really a single city ; and evidently it was the aim
and policy of St Paul to encourage them to bear vividly
in mind their common character and sisterhood.
Now, starting from this situation in A.D. 61, and taking
into consideration the creative and constructive capacity
which the Christian Church showed from the beginning,
we must infer that the consolidation of the three Churches
into a recognised group had been completed before the
Seven Letters were written. In a vigorous and rapidly
i8o XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
growing body like the Church of the Province Asia, a fact
was not likely to lie for a long time inactive, and then at
last begin actively to affect the growth of the whole organ-
ism. Rather we must conceive the stages in the Chris-
tian history of the Lycus Valley as being three : first, the
natural union and frequent intercommunication of three
separately founded, independent and equal Churches, as
appears in A.D. 6i ; secondly, the equally natural growing
pre-eminence before the eyes of the world of the leading
city, Laodicea, so that letters which were addressed to
one city were still intended equally for all, but Laodicea
was the one that was almost inevitably selected as the
representative and outstanding Church ; thirdly, the pre-
dominance and presidency of Laodicea as the adminis-
trative head and centre amid a group of subordinate
Churches.
How far this development had proceeded when the Seven
Letters were written it is hardly possible to say with cer-
tainty. We can, however, feel very confident that the third
stage had not yet been completely attained. The Seven
Letters afford no evidence on this point, except that, by
their silence about any other Churches, they suggest that
Laodicea was already felt to stand for and therefore to
be in a way pre-eminent in its group ; while, on the other
hand, the spirit of the early Church seems to be incon-
sistent with the view that Laodicea had as yet acquired
anything like headship or superiority. But the whole
question as to the growth of a fixed hierarchy and order
of dignity among the Churches is obscure, and needs
systematic investigation.'^
The case of the Lycus Valley Churches must be regarded
as typical. It was the result of circumstances common to
The Seven Churches of Asia i8i
the entire Province, Hence, the inference must be drawn
that a series of similar groups was formed throughout
Asia ; that the Seven Churches stood forth as in a certain
degree pre-eminent, though certainly not predominant, in
their respective groups ; and that thus each in the estima-
tion of the Asian world carried with it the thought of the
whole group of which it formed a centre.
The subject, however, is not yet complete. The char-
acter of that first group in the Lycus Valley would suggest
that the groups were territorial, marked off by geographical
limits. But a glance at the rest of the Seven shows that
this is not the case : there is here evidently nothing like
a division of Asia into geographical groups : the Seven
Churches are a circle of cities round the west-central
district of the Province, while south, east, and north arc
entirely unrepresented.
Again, the classification is not made according to rank
or dignity or importance in the Province. It is true that
the first three, Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum, are the
greatest and outstanding cities of the Province, which vied
with one another for the title, which all claimed and used
and boasted about, " P'irst of Asia " : there were three cities
" First of Asia," just as there were two First of Cilicia and
two First of Bithynia ; and Acts xvi. 1 1 shows that Philippi
claimed to be " FirsL of that division of Macedonia," refus-
ing to acknowledge Amphipolis, the official capital, as su-
perior to itself.^ This might suggest that they, as the three
greatest and most important cities of the Province, were
selected as centres of three groups of Churches. Also it is
true that among the remaining four, two, viz., Sardis and
LaodJcea, were, like the first three, the heads of conventus
{i.e., governmental districts for legal purposes).^ But this
1 82 XIV. The Seven Churches of Asia
principle breaks down completely in the case of Thyatira
and Philadelphia, which were secondary and second-rate
cities, the latter in the conventus of Sardis, the former in
that of Pergamum. The Seven Churches, therefore, were
not selected because they were planted in the most impor-
tant and influential cities — had that been the case, Cyzicus,
Alabanda, and Apameia could hardly have been omitted —
nor is the order of enumeration, beginning with Ephesus,
Smyrna, and Pergamum, due to the fact that those were
the three most important cities of Asia.
In order to complete this investigation, we must try to
reach some clearer conception of the almost wholly un-
known process by which the Church of the Province Asia
gradually worked out its internal organisation during the
first century. At the beginning of that process all those
Churches of Asia, apparently, stood side by side, equal in
standing, fully equipped with self-governing authority, ex-
cept in so far as they looked up to St. Paul as their founder
(either immediately or through his subordinate ministers)
and parent, director and counsellor : their relation to one
another was in some degree analogous to a voluntary union
of States in a federal republic. Before the end of the
century, the Province was divided into districts with repre-
sentative cities, and Asia was advancing along a path that
led to the institution of a regularly organised hierarchy
with one supreme head of the Province.
Now let us try to imagine the situation in which this
process occurred. The purpose which was being worked
out in the process was — unity. The Christian Church was
bent on consolidating itself in its struggle for the spiritual
lordship of the Empire. The means whereby it attained
that purpose, as has been shown in chapter iii., lay in con-
The Seven Churches of Asia 183
stant intercommunication, partly by travel, but still more
by letter. The result which was brought about could not
fail to stand in close relation to the means by which it had
been worked out. And a glance at the map shows that
there was some relation here between the means and the
result. Travelling and communication, of course, are in-
extricably involved in the road system : they are carried
out, not along the shortest lines between the various points,
but according to the roads that connect them. And all the
Seven Cities stand on the great circular road that bound
together the most populous, wealthy, and influential part of
the Province, the west-central region.
It is only fair to observe that that great scholar, the late
Dr. Hort, pointed the way to the true principle of selection
in an excursus to his fragmentary, posthumously published
edition of First Peter. In that excursus, which is a model
of scientific method in investigation, he points out that the
reason for the peculiar order in which the Provinces are
enumerated at the beginning of the Epistle lies in the route
along which the messenger was to travel, as he conveyed
the letter (perhaps in so many distinct copies) to the central
cities of the various Provinces. We now find ourselves led
to a similar conclusion in the case of Asia: the gradual
selection of Seven representative Churches in the Province
was in some way connected with the principal road-circuit
of the Province.
So far the result which we have reached is unavoidable
and undeniable : it merely states the evident fact. But, if
we seek to penetrate farther, and to trace the process of
development and consolidation more minutely, it is neces-
sary to enter upon a process of imaginative reconstruction.
We have given to us as the factors in this problem, the
184 XIV. The Scz'en Churches of Asia
state of the Asian Church about A.D. 60, and again its state
about AD. 90 : we know that the process whereby the one
was transformed into the other within those thirty years
took place along that road circuit, and was connected with
correspondence and intercourse. The details have to be
restored ; and as this necessarily involves an element of
hypothesis, it ought to be treated in a special chapter.
CHAPTER XV.
ORIGIN OF THE SEVEN REPRESENTATIVE CITIES.
The analogous case, quoted from Dr. Hort in the con-
clusion of the preceding chapter, must not be pressed too
closely or it might prove misleading. The fact from which
we have to start is that the First Epistle of Peter enumer-
ates the Provinces in the order in which a messenger sent
from Rome would traverse them,^ and that, similarly, the
Seven Churches are enumerated in the order in which a
messenger sent from Patmos would reach them.
In the former case the letter was written in Rome, and
the messenger would, in accordance with the regular customs
of communication over the Empire,^ sail to the Black Sea,
and land at one of the harbours on the north coast of Asia
Minor. He might either disembark in the nearest Province,
and make his way by land round the whole circuit, ending
in the most distant ; or he might choose a vessel bound for
the most distant Province and make the circuit in the reverse
order. There are some apparent advantages in the latter
method, which he adopted. He landed at one of the I'ontic
harbours, Amastris or Sinope or Amisos, traversed in suc-
cession Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia and Asia, and ended
in Bithynia, at one of whose great harbours he would find
frequent opportunity of sailing to Rome, or, if he were de-
tained till navigation had ceased during the winter season,
the overland Post Road,^ through Thrace and Macedonia,
(185)
1 86 XV. Origin of the Seven Representative Citiei
would be conveniently open to him. Such a messenger
would visit in succession one or more of the leading cities
of each Province, because the great Imperial routes of com-
munication ran direct between the great cities. He would
not concern himself with distributing the letter to the indi-
vidual Christians in each Province ; that task would be left
to the local Church, which would use its own organisation to
bring the knowledge of the message home to every small
Church and every individual. His work would be supple-
mented by secondary messengers on smaller circuits in
each Province and again in each city. In no other way
was effective and general distribution possible.
In the latter case the letter enclosing the Apocalypse with
the Seven Letters was written in Patmos, and the messen-
ger would naturally land at Ephesus, and make his round
through the Seven representative Churches as they are
enumerated by the writer. The route was clearly marked
out, and the messenger could hardly avoid it. He would
go north along the great road through Smyrna to Perga-
mum (the earliest Roman road built in the Province about
133-130 B.C., as soon as Asia was organised). Thence
he would follow the imperial Post Road to Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia and Laodicea, and so back to Ephesus, or on
to the East, as duty called him, using in either case the great
Central Route of the Empire. At each point, like the other
messenger, he would trust to the local organisation to com-
plete the work of divulgation.
In those two circuits — the general Anatolian circuit of
First Peter, and the special Asian circuit of the Apocalypse
— it is obvious that the messengers were not merely ordered
to take the letter (whether in one or in several copies) and
deliver it, using the freedom of their own will as to the way
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities 187
and order of delivery. The route was marked out for them
beforehand, and was already known to the writers when
composing the letters. The question then arises whether
the route in those two cases was chosen expressly for the
special occasion and enjoined by the writer on the messen-
ger, or was already a recognised circuit which messengers
were expected to follow in every similar case. Without
going into minute detail, it may be admitted that the route
indicated in First Peter might possibly have been expressly
selected for that special journey by the writer, who knew or
asked what was the best route ; and thus it came to be
stated by him in the letter. Equally possibly it might be
known to the writer as the already recognised route for the
Christian messengers.
But the former supposition could not be applied in the
case of the Apocalypse ; it is utterly inconsistent with the
results established in chapter vi., since it would leave un-
explained the fundamental fact in the case, viz.^ that the
writer uses the expression " the Seven Churches" in i. 4, 11,
as recognised and familiar, established in common usage, and
generally understood as summing up the whole Christian
Province. Moreover, the messenger in First Peter was
starting on a journey to deliver a real letter ; but in the
Apocalypse the letter-form is assumed merely as a literary
device, and the book as a whole, and the Seven Letters as
part of it, are literary compositions not really intended to
be despatched like true letters to the Churches to which
they are addressed. The list of the Seven Churches is
taken over, like the rest of the machinery of epistolary
communication, as part of the circumstances to which this
literary imitation has to accommodate itself.
Moreover those who properly weigh the indisputable facts
i88 XV. Origin of the Seven Representative Cities
stated in chapter vi. about the growth of the Laodicean
district, as an example of the steady, rapid development of
early Christian organisation, must come to the conclusion
that the writer of the Letters cannot have been the first to
make Laodicea the representative of a group of Churches,
but found it already so regarded by general consent. Now
what is true of Laodicea must be applied to the rest of the
Seven Churches.
In short, if there were not such a general agreement as to
the representative character of the Seven Churches, it is
difficult to see how the writer could so entirely ignore the
other Churches, and write to the Seven without a word of
explanation that the letters were to be considered as refer-
ring also to the others. St. Paul, who wrote before that
general agreement had been effected, carefully explained
that his letter to Colossas was intended to be read also at
Laodicea, and vice versa; but St. John assumes that no
such explanation is needed.
Another important point to observe is that the Seven
Cities were not selected simply because they were situated
on the circular route above described, nor yet because
they were the most important cities on that route. The
messenger must necessarily pass through Hierapolis, Tralleis
and Magnesia on his circular journey ; all those cities were
indubitably the seats of Churches at that time ; yet none
of the three found a place among the representative cities,
although Tralleis and Magnesia M-ere more important and
wealthy than Philadelphia or Thyatira. What then was
the principle of selection ?
In chapter iii. we saw that the Christian Church owed
its growth and its consolidation under the early Empire
to its carefulness in maintaining frequent correspondence
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities 189
between the scattered congregations, thus preventing isola-
tion, making uniformity of character and aims possible, and
providing (so to say) the channels through which coursed
the life-blood of the whole organism ; and the conclusion
was reached that, since no postal service was maintained
by the State for the use of private individuals or trading
companies, " we find ourselves obliged to admit the exist-
ence of a large organisation " for the transmission of the
letters by safe. Christian hands. Just as all the great
trading companies maintained each its own corps of letter-
carriers itabellarii), so the Christians must necessarily pro-
vide means for carrying their own letters, if they wanted to
write ; and this necessity must inevitably result, owing to
the constructive spirit of that rapidly growing body, in the
formation of a letter-carrying system. The routes of the
letter-carriers were fixed according to the most convenient
circuits, and the provincial messengers did not visit all the
cities, but only certain centres, from whence a subordinate
service distributed the letters or news over the several con-
nected circuits or groups.
Thus there emerges from the obscurity of the first cen-
tury, and stands out clear before our view ab^ut A.D. 80,
some kind of organisation for connecting and consolidating
the numerous Churches of the Province Asia. The Province
had already by that date been long and deeply affected
by the new religion ; and it must be presumed that there
existed a congregation and a local Church in almost every
great city, at least in the parts most readily accessible from
the west coast.
Such is the bare outline of a kind of private messenger-
service for the Province, similar in many ways, doubtless,
to the private postal systems which must have been main-
190 XV. Origin of the Seven Representative Cities
tained by every great trading corporation whose operations
extended over the same parts (the wealthiest and most
educated and " Hellenised " * parts) of the Province. The
general character of this messenger service, in so far as it
was uniform over the whole Roman Empire, has been
described in chapter iii. A more detailed view of the
special system of the Province Asia may now be gained
from a closer study of the character and origin of the Seven
Churches.
When letters or information were sent round the Churches
of the Province, either the same messenger must have gone
round the whole Province, and visited every Church, or
several messengers must have been employed simultane-
ously. The former method is obviously too inconvenient
and slow : the single messenger would require often to go
and return over part of the same road, and the difference
of time in the receiving of the news by the earlier and the
later Churches would have been so great, that the advan-
tages of intercommunication would have been to a great
degree lost. Accordingly, it must be concluded that several
messengers were simultaneously employed to carry any
news intended for general information in the Province of
Asia.
Again, either those several messengers must all have
started from the capital and centre of communication, viz.y
Ephesus, or else one must have started from the capital, and
others must have started on secondary routes, receiving the
message from the primary messenger at various points on
his route. The former of these alternatives is evidently
too cumbrous, as it would make several messengers travel
simultaneously along the same road bearing the same
message. It is therefore necessary to admit a distinction
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities 191
between primary and secondary circuits, the former starting
from Ephesus, the latter from various points on the primary
circuit.
Now, if we combine this conclusion with our previously
established results, the hypothesis inevitably suggests itself
that the Seven groups of Churches, into which the Province
had been divided before the Apocalypse was composed,
were seven postal districts, each having as its centre or
point of origin one of the Seven Cities, which (as was
pointed out) lie on a route which forms a sort of inner
circle round the Province.
Closer examination of the facts will confirm this hypo-
thesis so strongly as to raise it to a very high level of
probability : in fact, the hypothesis is simply a brief state-
ment of the obvious facts of communication, and our closer
examination will be merely a more minute and elaborate
statement of the facts.
The Seven Cities, as has been already stated, were
situated on a very important circular route, which starts
from Ephesus, goes round what may be called Asia par
excellence^ the most educated and wealthy and historically
pre-eminent part of the Province.^ They were the best
points on that circuit to serve as centres of communication
with seven districts : Pergamum for the north (Troas,
doubtless Adramyttium, and probably Cyzicus and other
cities on the coast contained Churches) ; Thyatira for an
inland district on the north-east and east ; Sardis for the
wide middle valley of the Hermus ; Philadelphia for Upper
Lydia, to which it was the door (iii. 8) ; Laodicea for the
Lycus Valley, and for Central Phrygia, of which it was the
Christian metropolis in later time ; Ephesus for the Cayster
and Lower Maeander Valleys and coasts ; Smyrna for the
192 XV. Origin of the Seven Representative Cities
Lower Hermus Valley and the North Ionian coasts, perhaps
with Mitylene and Chios (if those islands had as yet been
affected).
In this scheme of secondary districts it is evident that
some are very much larger than others. The whole of
Western and Central Caria must be included in the Ephesian
district. The North-eastern part of Caria would more
naturally fall in the Laodicean district, to which also a
vast region of Phrygia should belong, leaving to the Phila-
delphian district another large region, Northern and West-
central Phrygia with a considerable part of Eastern Lydia.
But it is possible, and even probable, that Ephesus was the
centre from which more than one secondary circuit went
off: it is not necessary to suppose that only one secondary
messenger started from such a city. So also with Laodicea
and possibly with Philadelphia and Smyrna and others.
An organisation of this kind, while familiar to all in its
results, would never be described by any one in literature,
just as no writer gives an account of the Imperial Post-
service ; and hence no account is preserved of either.
While the existence of a primary circuit, and a number
of secondary circuits going off from the Seven Cities of the
primary circuit, seems certain, the number and arrangement
of the secondary circuits is conjectural and uncertain.
The whole of the arrangements would have to be made
to suit the means of communication that existed in the
Province Asia, the roads and the facilities for travel, on
which chapter iii. may be consulted. It lies apart from our
purpose to work it out in detail ; but the system which
seems most probable is indicated on the accompanying
sketch-map, and those who investigate it minutely will
doubtless come to the conclusion that some of the circuits
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities 193
indicated are fairly certain, but most can only be regarded
as, at the best, reasonably probable, and some will probably
be found to be wrong when a mor6 thorough knowledge
of the Asian road-system (which is the only evidence ac-
cessible) has been attained. It will, however, be useful to
discuss some conspicuous difficulties, which are likely to
suggest themselves to every investigator.
The first is about Troas. Considering its importance as
the doorway of North-western Asia,*^ one might at first
expect to find that it was one of the Seven representative
Churches. But a glance at the map will show that it could
not be worked into the primary circuit of the provincial
messenger, except by sacrificing the ease and immensely
widening the area and lengthening the time of his journey.
On the other hand Troas comes in naturally on that second-
ary circuit which has Pergamum as its origin. The Perga-
menian messenger followed the Imperial Post Road through
Adramyttium, Assos and Troas, along the Hellespont to
Lampsacus. There the Post Road crossed into Europe,"^
while the messenger traversed the coast road to Cyzicus,
and thence turned south through Poimanenon to Per-
gamum. This circuit is perhaps the most obvious and
convincing of the whole series, as the account of the roads
and towns on it in the Historical Geography of Asia Minor,
ch. E, will bring out clearly.^
The second difficulty relates to Tralleis and Magnesia.
As the primary messenger had to pass through them, why
are they relegated to the secondary circuit of Ephesus ?
Obviously, the primary messenger would reach them last
of all ; and long before he came to them the messenger on
a secondary Ephesfan circuit would have reached them.
Moreover, it is probable that the primary circuit was not
194 ^^- Origin of the Seven Representative Cities
devised simply with a view to the Province of Asia, but
was intended to be often conjoined with a further journey
to Galatia and the East, so that the messenger would not
return from Laodicea to the coast, but would keep on up
the Lycus by Colossae eastwards.
Thirdly, Caria does not fit well in the secondary districts
and circuits. It is so great that it seems to require for
itself one special circuit ; and if so Tralleis was the one
almost inevitable point of communication with the primary
circuit. Yet Tralleis was not one of the Seven Churches.
But probably a distinction must be made. Western Caria
(Alabanda, Stratonicea and the coast cities) probably
formed a secondary circuit along with the Lower Maeander
Valley ; and Ephesus was the starting point for it. On the
other hand the eastern and southern part of Caria lay apart
from any of the great lines of communication : it was on the
road to nowhere : any one who went south from the Maeander
into the hilly country did so for the sake of visiting it, and
not because it was on his best way to a more distant goal.
Now the new religion spread with marvellous rapidity along
the great routes ; it floated free on the great currents of com-
munication that swept back and forward across the Empire,
but it was slower to make its way into the back-waters, the
nooks and corners of the land : it penetrated where life was
busy, thought was active, and people were full of curiosity
and enterprise : it found only a tardy welcome among the
quieter and less educated rural districts. Hence that part
of Caria was little disturbed in the old ways, when most of
the rest of Asia was strongly permeated with Christianity.
Fourthly, an immense region of Northern and Eastern
Phrygia seems to be quite beyond any reasonably easy
communication with the primary circular route.
Origin of the Seven Representative Cities 195
As to Northern Phrygia, it is extremely doubtful whether
it had been much affected by the new religion when the
Seven Letters were written. It was a rustic, scantily edu-
cated region, which offered no favourable opportunity for
Christianity. Some, indeed, would argue that, as Bithynia
was so strongly permeated with the new religion, before
A.D. Ill, Phrygia which lies farther south and nearer the
original seats of Christianity, must have been Christianised
earlier. This argument, however, ignores the way in which
Christianity spread, viz., along the main roads and lines
of communication. The same cause, which made Eastern
Caria later in receiving the new faith (as shown above), also
acted in Northern Phrygia. A study of the interesting
monuments of early Christianity in that part of the country
has shown that it was Christianised from Bithynia (probably
not earlier than the second century),^ and it was therefore
left out of the early Asian system, as being still practically
a pagan country. Southern Phrygia lay near the main
Central Route of the Empire, and its early Christian monu-
ments show a markedly different character from the North
Phrygian monuments, and prove that it was Christianised
(as was plainly necessary) from the line of the great
Central Highway.^*' This part of Phrygia lay entirely in
the Upper Maeander Valley, and fell naturally within the
Laodicean circuit.
Eastern Phrygia, on the other hand, was Christianised
from Iconium and Pisidian Antioch, and was therefore not
included in the early Asian system which we have de-
scribed. Doubtless, during the second century, a com-
plete provincial organisation came into existence ; and all
Christian Asia was then united. But, as great part of
Phrygia had for a long time been outside of the Asian
196 XV. Oi'igin of the Seven Representative Cities
system of the Seven Churches, it was sometimes even in the
second century thought necessary for the sake of clearness
to mention Phrygia along with Asia in defining the Church
of the whole Province. Plence we have the phrase "the
Churches (or Brethren) of Asia and Phrygia " in Tertullian,
adv. Prax. l, and in the letter of the Gallic Christians.
In the case of Laodicea it seems natural and probable
that two secondary circuits must be admitted. One would
include the Lycus and the Upper Maeander Valleys : the
messenger would go along the great Central Highway
and trade route through Colossse to Apameia, and thence
through the Pentapolis and back by Eumeneia to Laodicea.
Hierapolis, being so close to Laodicea, would share in any
Laodicean communication without any special messenger.
Another secondary circuit would follow the important
Pamphylian Road (to Perga and Attalia), as far as Cibyra,
and then perhaps keep along the frontier of the Province
to Lake Ascania ; but this road was rather a rustic byway,
and it is hardly probable that the frontier region was
Christianised so early as the first century. The Cibyra
district, on the Pamphylian Road, was more likely to be
penetrated early by the new thought ; and the name
Epaphras in an inscription of this district may be a sign
that the impulse came from Colossas.^^
Thus we find that the Seven Letters are directed to
a well-marked district embracing the greater part of the
Province Asia ; and natural features, along with indubitable
epigraphic and monumental evidence, make it probable that
the district of the Seven Letters contained the entire Asian
Church as it was organised about the end of the first century.
The importance of the Seven Letters becomes evident even
in such a small thou^^h interesting matter as this.
CHAPTER XVI.
PLAN AND ORDER OF TOPICS IN THE SEVEN LETTERS.
Each of the Seven Letters opens, as letters in ancient time
always did, by stating who sends the message and to whom
it is sent. But the exordium does not take the form that
it would have if the sender of the message were the writer
of the letter, viz., " the writer to the person addressed ".
In the present case the letters are written by John, who
imagines himself to be only the channel through which
they come from the real Author ; and the exordium is
altered to suit this situation. The writer does not name
himself; but after naming the persons addressed — To the
angel of the Church in Ephesus — he gives a brief description
of the Author of the message. The seven descriptions all
differ from one another ; and, taken together, they make
up the complete account given in Rev. i. of One like unto
a son of man. The Divine Author presents Himself in a
different aspect to each individual Church ; and the seven
aspects make up His complete personal description, as the
different Churches make up the complete and Universal
Church. This expresses in another way what we have
tried to show in chapter xiv. : the Seven Churches make
up the complete Church of the Province Asia, because
each of them stands in place of a group of Churches, and
the Church of the Province Asia in its turn stands in place
of the Universal Church of Christ,
(197)
198 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
This variation from the ordinary formula of ancient
letters is connected with the fact, which has already been
pointed out, that these are not true letters, but literary
compositions, or rather parts of one larger composition.
Although for convenience we have called them the Seven
Letters, they were not to be sent separately to the Seven
Churches. The Apocalypse is a book which was never
intended to be taken except as a whole ; and the Seven
Letters are a mere part of this book, and never had any
existence except in the book. The Seven Churches had
established their representative position before the book
was composed ; and that is assumed throughout by the
author. They stand to him, in their combination, for the
entire Province, and the Province stands to him for the
entire Church of Christ ; though, when he is writing to
Smyrna or Thyatira, he sees and thinks of Smyrna or
Thyatira alone.
As to the brief description of the Divine Author, which
is prefixed to each of the Seven Letters, there is a special
appropriateness in each case to the character or circum-
stances of the Church which is addressed. To a certain
extent we can comprehend wherein this appropriateness
lies ; but there is probably a good deal which escapes us,
because our knowledge of the character and history of the
Seven Churches is so incomplete. From this appropriate-
ness it follows that the complete description of the Divine
Author, which is made up of those seven parts, is logically
later than the parts, though it comes first in the book. This
appears especially in the Thyatiran letter. In the highly
complex plan of the work, every detail was selected separ-
ately in view of its suitability for one or other of the Seven
Churches, and was then worked into its place in the full
In the Seven Letters 199
description in the first chapter. Yet the description is
complete : the writer worked up the parts into a whole
before stating them separately for the Seven Churches.
After the formal heading or exordium, each of the Seven
Letters begins by a statement intimating that the writer
possesses full knowledge of the character and position of
the Church which he is addressing. In five out of the
seven letters this intimation begins, I know thy works; but
in the cases of Smyrna and Pergamum, the opening is
different : / know thy tribulation^ and / know where thou
dwellest. The difference is evidently due to their peculiar
circumstances. He who wishes to prove his full knowledge
of the Church in Smyrna says that he knows its sufferings ;
because these were the striking feature in its history. And
in Pergamum the most prominent and distinguishing charac-
teristic lay in its situation, " where the throne of Satan is" :
by that situation its history had been strongly influenced.
But in most cases what is essential to know about a Church
is what it has done ; and so begin all the other five.
As was stated in chapter iii., the letter to an individual
Church passes easily into an *' Epistle General " to the whole
Church, for it embodies general principles of nature, order,
and government, which are applicable to all. Similarly, to
apply the comparison which was there made, the Imperial
Rescript addressed to a Province or to its governor em-
bodied general principles of administration, which were
afterwards regarded as applicable universally (except in so
far as they were adapted to an exceptional condition of the
Province addressed). But in every case, when an individual
Church is addressed, as here, it is addressed in and for it
itself, and its own special individual character and fortunes
are clearly present before the writer's mind. He does not
200 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
think of the Smyrna group when he addresses Smyrna,
nor is he thinking of the Universal Church : he addresses
Smyrna alone ; he has it clear before his mind, with all
its special qualities and individuality. Yet the group which
had its centre in Smyrna, and the whole Universal Church,
alike found that the letter which was written for Smyrna
applied equally to them, for it was a statement of eternal
truths and universal principles.
There was undoubtedly a very considerable resemblance
between the Seven Cities : the surroundings in v/hich the
Seven Churches were placed were similar ; and accordingly
the character of all was in a superficial view similar. In
every city there were doubtless Jews of the nationalist party,
bitterly opposed to the Jewish Christians and through them
to the Christians as a body, a source of danger and trouble
to every one of the Churches ; but the Jews are mentioned
only in the letters to Smyrna and Philadelphia. There
were Nicolaitans, beyond all question, in every Asian con-
gregation ; but they are alluded to only in the Thyatiran
letter as the dominant party in that Church, in the letter to
Pergamum as a strong element there, and in the Ephesian
letter as disapproved and hated by the Church of Ephesus
as a body. Every one of the Seven Churches was a mis-
sionary centre ; but Philadelphia alone is depicted as the
missionary Church.
Underneath the general similarity the writer and the
Author saw the differences which determined the character,
the past history, and the ultimate fate of all the Seven
Churches (as described in chapter iv.).
But the differences should not be too much emphasised,
or exclusively attended to, There are two hostile powers
everywhere present, one open and declared, one secret and
In the Seven Letters 201
lurking within the camp ; and the thought of these is never
far from the writer's mind, even though he does not ex-
pressly mention them in every letter.
One is the Imperial power and the Imperial worship,
which the writer saw plainly to be the power of Satan
engaged in a determined attempt to annihilate the Church,
but doomed beforehand to failure. The Church and the
Imperial worship are irreconcilable ; one or the other must
be destroyed ; and the issue is not doubtful. Since the
Imperial power has now actively allied itself with the Im-
perial cultus in this conflict against truth and life, it has
doomed itself to destruction.
The other enemy is the Nicolaitan principle. The oppo-
sition to the Nicolaitans is the chief factor in determining
the character and form of the Seven Letters. But for them
there would probably be no letters to the Seven Churches.
The rest of the Apocalypse is occupied with the triumph
over the Imperial Religion. But there was no need to
warn the Churches against it : it was a sham, doomed to
destruction, and already conquered in every martyrdom.
The one pressing danger to the Churches was within and
not without : it lay in their weaknesses of nature, and in
that false teaching which was set forth with the show
of authority by some prophets and leaders in the Churches.
Against the Nicolaitan teachers the Seven Letters are di-
rected in the way of warning and reproof, with strenuous
opposition and almost bigoted hatred. Those teachers drew
a somewhat contemptuous contrast between their highly
advanced teaching, with its deep thought and philosopliic
insight, and the simple, uneducated, unphilosophic views
which St John championed. They gave undue emphasis
to the Greek aspect of Christianity; and in its practical
202 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
working out they made it their rule of life to maintain the
closest possible relations with the best customs of ordinary
society in the Asian cities. 1 his attempt was in itself quite
justifiable ; but in the judgment of St. John (and we may
add of St. Paul ^ also) they went too far, and tried to retain
in the Christian life practices that were in diametrical
opposition to the essential principles of Christianity, and
thus they had strayed into a syncretism of Christian and
anti-Christian elements which was fatal to the growth and
permanence of Christian thought.
But in his opposition to the Nicolaitans the writer does
not make the mistake of going to the opposite extreme,
minimising the share that Greek thought and custom might
have in the Christian life, and exaggerating the opposition
between Greek education and true religion. He holds the
balance with a steady hand ; he expresses himself in a
form that should be clear and sympathetic to the Greek
Churches whom he was addressing ; he gives quiet em-
phasis to the best side of Greek education in letters which
are admirable efforts of literary power ; but at a certain
point his sympathy stops dead ; beyond that point it was
fatal to go.
He saw the whole of life, and not merely one side of it ;
and he was not misled by indiscriminate opposition to the
enemy, however strongly he hated them. He would have
weakened the Church permanently, if he had made the
mistake, too common in the history of religion, of con-
demning everything that the other side championed. He
took from it all that could be taken safely, gave all that it
could give to train the religious feeling to the highest, and
did everything better than his enemy could.
In studying St. Paul we find ourselves forced to recognise
In the Seven Letters 203
the essential agreement of his views on this question with
St. John's ; ^ and in studying St. John we find ourselves
forced to the same judgment. With superficial differences
they both take the same calm, sane view of the situation as
a whole, and legislate for the young Church on the same
lines. Up to a certain point the converted pagan should
develop the imperfect, but not wholly false, religious ideas
and gropings after truth of his earlier years into a Christian
character ; but there was much that was absolutely false
and fundamentally perverted in those ideas ; the pagan
religions had been degraded from an originally better form
by the wilful sin and error of men, and all that part of them
must be inexorably eradicated and destroyed. The deter-
mining criterion lay in the idolatrous element : where that
was a necessary part of pagan custom or opinion, there was
no justification for clinging to it : unsparing condemnation
and rejection was the only course open to a true Christian,
Hence arose the one striking contrast in outward ap-
pearance between the views of the two Apostles. St. Paul
clung to the hope and belief that the Church might develop
within the Empire, and find protection from the Imperial
government. St. John regarded the Imperial government
as Antichrist, the inevitable enemy of Christianity. But in
the interval between the two lay the precise formulation of
the Imperial policy, which imposed on the Christians as a
test of loyalty the {lerformance of religious ritual in the
worship of the Emperors. The Empire armed itself with
the harness of idolatry; and the principle that St. Paul
himself had laid down in the sharpest and clearest terms at
once put an end to any hope that he had entertained of
reconciliation and amity between the Church and the exist-
ing State.
204 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
Again, the Seven Letters repeatedly, in the most pointed
way, express and emphasise the continuity of history, in
the city and the local Church. The Church is not simply
regard :d as a s?parat3 fact, apart from the city in which it
ha •. its temporary abode ; such a point of view was impos-
s ble and su:h a thought was inconceivable for the ordinary
ancient mind. We have so grown in the lapse of centuries
and th ^ greater refinement of thought as to be able to hold
apart in our minds the two conceptions ; but the ancients
regarded 'he State or the city and its religion as two aspects
of one thing. So again, to the ancients evry association of
human beings had its relig'ous side, and could not exist if
t!"iat side were destroyed.
The literary form which beyond all others is loved by
the writer of the Seven Letters is comparison and contrast.
Throughout them all he is constantly striking a balance
between the power which the Divine Author wields, the
gifts that he gives, the promises and prospects which he
holds forth to his own, and the achievements of all enemies,
the Empire, the pagan cities, the Jews, and the Nicolaitans.
The modern reader has almost everywhere to add one side
of the comparison, for the writer only expresses one side
and leaves the other to the intuition of his readers. He
selects a characteristic by which the enemy prominent in
his mind was, or ought to be, distinguished, and describes
it in terms in which his readers could not fail to read a
reference to that enemy; but he attributes it to the Divine
Author or the true Church or the true Christian. Thus he
describes the irresistible might that shall be given to the
Thyatiran victor in terms which could not fail to rouse in
every reader the thought of the great Empire and its
tremendous military strength.
In the Seven Letters 205
Examples of this rhetorical form will be pointed out in
every letter; and yet it is probable that many more were
apparent to the Asian readers than we can now detect
The thought that is everywhere present in the writer's mind
is how much better the true Church does everything than
any of its foes, open or secret.
One example may be given. The simple promise made
by the Author to the Smyrnaeans, / will give you the crown
of life ^ when compared with the address which Apollonius
made to them, is seen to contain implicit allusion to a feature
of the city, which was a cause of peculiar pride to the citi-
zens : "the crown of Smyrna" was the garland of splendid
buildings with the Street of Gold, which encircled the
rounded hill Pages. Apollonius in a fully expressed com-
parison advised the citizens to prefer a crown of men to a
crown of buildings. This Author leaves one member of the
figure to be understood : if we expressed his thought in full,
it would be " instead of the crown of buildings which you
boast of, or the crown of men that your philosophers re-
commend, / will give you the crown of life".
The peroration of each of the Seven Letters is modelled
in the same way: all contain a claim for attention and a
promise. The former is identical in all Seven Letters : he
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
Churches. The latter is different in every case, being
adapted to the special character of each.
The claim for attention, which is made in the peroration
of every letter, is perhaps to be understood as in part apply-
ing to the whole Apocalypse, but in a much greater degree
it applies to the advice and reproof and encouragement
contained in the individual letter and in the whole Seven
Letters. There was less need to press for attention to the
2o6 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
vision of victory and triumph, while there was serious need
to demand attention to the letter, with its plain statement
of the dangers to which the Church was exposed. Hence,
while the claim is identical in all, it is specially needed in
each letter.
The promise made to the victors at the end of every letter
is to be understood as addressed partly to the Christians of
the city, but still more to the true Christians of the entire
Church. The idea that the individual Church is part of
the Universal Church, that it stands for it after the usual
symbolic fashion of the Apocalypse, is never far from the
writer's mind ; and he passes rapidly between the two points
of view, the direct address to the local Church as an in-
dividual body with special needs of its own, and the general
application and apostroph:; to the entire Church as symbo-
lised by the particular local Church.
There is a difference among the letters in regard to the
arrangement of the peroration : in the first three the claim
for attention comes before the promise, in the last four it
comes after. It must remain doubtful whether there is
any special intention in this, beyond a certain tendency in
the writer towards employing variety as a literary device.
Almost every little variation and turn in these letters, how-
ever, is carefully studied ; and probably it is through deliber-
ate intention that they are divided by this variation into
two classes ; but what is the reason for the division, and
the principle involved in it, is hard to say. The first thref
ranked also as the three greatest cities of the Province,
vying with one another for the title " First of Asia," which
all three claimed. In the general estimation of the world,
and in their own, they formed a group apart (compare Fig.
lo, p. 174), while the others were second-rate. ProbaWv
In the Seven Letters 207
there was a set of seven leading cities in public estimation,
as we saw in chapter xiv, ; and certainly there was within
that set a narrower and more famous group of three. It
may be that this difference almost unconsciously affected
the writer's expression and produced a corresponding varia-
tion in the form, though the variation apparently conveys
no difference in force o; meaning, but is purely literary and
formal.
An attempt has been made to explain the variation on
the ground that the first three Churches are regarded as
having on the whole been faithful, though with faults and
imperfections ; whereas the last four have been faithless
for the most part, and only a " remnant " is acknowledged
in them as faithful. But, while that is true of three out of
the four, yet Philadelphia is praised very highly, with almost
more thoroughness than any even of the first three, except
Smyrna ; and it is the only Church to which the Divine
Author says " / have loved thee ".
So far as grouping can be detected among the Seven
Churches, it would rather appear that they are placed in
pairs. Ephesus and Sardis go together ; so again Sm) rna
and Philadelphia, Pergamum and Thyatira; while the dis-
tant Laodicea stands by itself, far away in the land of
Phrygia. Ephesus and Sardis have both changed and
deteriorated ; but in Ephesus the change amounts only to
a loss of enthusiasm which is still perhaps recoverable ; in
Sardis the deterioration has deepened into death. Smyrna
and Philadelphia are praised far more unreservedly than
the rest ; both are poor and weak ; both have suffered from
the Jews ; but both are full of life and vigour, now and
forever. Pergamum and Thyatira have both been strongly
affected by Nicolaitanism ; both are compared and con-
2o8 XVI. Plan and Order of Topics
trasted with the Imperial power ; and both are promised
victory over it. Laodicea stands alone, outcast and rejected,
because it cannot make up its mind whether to be one thing
or another.
This common plan on which all the Seven Letters are
framed would alone furnish a sufficient proof that they are
not true letters, but literary compositions which are cast in
the form of letters, because that form had already estab-
lished itself in usage. Now the writer certainly did not
select this form merely because it was recognised in the
pagan literature. He selected it because it had already
become recognised as the characteristic and the best form of
expression for Christian didactic literature. A philosophic
exposition of truth was apt to become abstract and unreal ;
the dialogue form, which the Greeks loved and some of the
Christian writers adopted, was apt to degenerate into loose-
ness and mere literary display; but the letter, as already
elaborated by great thinkers and artists who were his pre-
decessors, was determined for him as the best medium of
expression. In this form (as has been shown in chapter
iii.) literature, statesmanship, ethics, and religion met, and
placed the simple letter on the highest level of practical
power. Due regard to the practical needs of the congrega-
tion which he addressed prevented the writer of a letter
from losing hold on the hard facts and serious realities of
life. The spirit of the lawgiver raised him above all danger
of sinking into the commonplace and the trivial. Great
principles must be expressed in the Christian letter. And
finally it must have literary form as a permanent monument
of teaching and legislation.
It was a correct literary instinct that led St. John to
express the message to the Seven Churches in letters, even
In the Seven Letters 209
though he had to work these letters into an apocalypse of
the Hebraic style, a much less fortunate choice on pure
literary grounds, though (as we have seen in chapter viif.)
it was practically inevitable in the position in which the
writer was placed. In each letter, though it was only a
literary Epistle addressed to a representative Church, the
writer was obliged to call up before his mind the actual
Church as he knew it ; and thus he has given us seven
varied and individualised pictures of different congregations.
Probably the opposition and criticism which he was sure
to experience from the Nicolaitans stimulated the writer to
reach the high standard of literary quality which character-
ises the Seven Letters in spite of the neglect of traditional
rules of expression. He uses the language of common life,
not the stereotyped forms of the historian or the philo-
sopher. As Dante had the choice between the accepted*
language of education, Latin, and the vulgar tongue, the
popular Italian, so St. John had to choose between a more
artificial kind of Greek, as perpetuated from past teaching,
and the common vulgar speech, often emancipated from
strict grammatical rules, but nervous and vigorous, a true
living speech. He chose the latter.
While one must speak about and admire the literary
power of the Seven Letters, the writer did not aim at
literary form. He stated his thought in the simplest way ;
he had pondered over the letters during the lonely years in
Patmos, until they expressed themselves in the briefest and
most direct form that great thoughts can assume ; but
therein lies the greatest power that the letter can attain.
He reached the highest level in point of epistolary quality,
because he had no thought of form, but only of effect on
his reader's life.
CHAPTER XVIL
EPHESUS : THE CITY OF CHANGE.»
The subject of the present chapter is the early Roman
city, the Ephesus of St. John and St. Paul. But as soon
as we begin to examine its character and make even a
superficial survey of its history, it stands out as the place
that had experienced more vicissitudes than any other city
of Asia. In most places the great features of nature and
the relations of sea and land remain permanent amid the
mutations of human institutions : but in Ephesus even
nature has changed in a surprising degree. To appreci-
ate its character as the city of change, we must observe its
history more minutely than is needed in the other cities.
At the present day Ephesus has all the appearance
of an inland city. The traveller who wanders among its
ruins may be at first unconscious of the neighbourhood
of the sea. He beholds only a plain stretching east and
west, closed in on the north and south by long lines of
mountain, Gallesion and Koressos. As he looks to the
east he sees only ranges of mountains rising one behind
another. As he looks to the west his view from most part
of the city is bounded by a ridge which projects northwards
from the long ridge of Koressos into the plain. This little
ridge is crowned by a bold fort, called in the modern local
tradition, St. Paul's Prison : the fort stands on the hill of
Astyages (according to the ancient name), and the ridge
(210)
Ephesiis : the City of Change 2 1 1
contains also another peak on the west, called the Hermaion.
The ridge and fort constitute the extreme western defences
of the Greek city, which was built about 287 B.C. That old
Greek tower, owing to its distance and isolation, has escaped
intentional destruction, and is one of the best preserved
parts of the old fortification. From its elevation of 450 feet
it dominates the view, the most striking and picturesque
feature of the Greek Ephesus,
The historian of Greece, Professor Ernst Curtius, was
misled by the appearance of the city, and has described the
fortunes of Ephe;us as a city separated from the sea by the
ridge of Astyages.^ This misapprehension partially distorted
his view of Ephesian history and coloured his picture, which
is otherwise marked by sympathetic insight and charm of
expression. It is the merit of Professor Benndorf to have
placed the subject in its true light, and to have shown
that the hisLory of Ephesus was determined by its original
situation on the sea-shore and its eagerness to retain its
character as a harbour in spite of the changes of nature,
which left it far from the sea. The brief sketch, which
follows, of the history of Ephesus is founded on Benndorf's
first topographical sketch, and on the map prepared for his
promised fuller study of the subject. The present writer
is indebted to his kindness for a copy of the map in proof
not finally corrected, and can only regret that this sketch
has to be printed without access to the historical study
which is to accompany it.
The most impressive view of modern Ephesus is from the
western side of Mount Pion, either from the upper seats of
the Great Theatre or from a point a little higher. The
eye ranges westwards over the streets and buildings of the
Greek and Roman city (recently uncovered by the Austrian
212 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
Fig. II. — Conjectural map of the plain of Epnesus, to show changes in the
coast-line. The line of the walls of the Hellenic {and Roman) city is
marked. The history of Ephesus takes place between the hill of St,
jfohn (Ayassoluk) and the hill of St. Paul (Astyages). The sea in
I00-200 A.D. probably came m/ to about the valley opening down from
Ortygia (p. 233).
3 uZ
o o
^ —
H ^
Ephesus: the City of Change 213
Archaeological Institute in excavations extending over
many years and conducted with admirable skill), and across
the harbour to the hill of Astyages : south-west the view is
bounded by the long ridge of Koressos, along the front
crest of which runs the south wall of the Greek city : north-
west one looks across the level plain to the sea, full six
miles away, and to the rocky ridge that projects from
Mount Gallesion and narrows the sea-gates of the valley :
northward lie the level plain and the steep slopes of Galle-
sion. The mouth of the river is hidden from sight behind
the hill of Astyages. Plate I.
But a large and important part of ancient Ephesus is
excluded from that view, and can be seen only by ascend-
ing to the top of the twin-peaked Pion, which commands
the view on all sides. The view from the upper seats of
the Theatre may be supplemented by looking east from the
northern edge of Pion, beside the Stadium, or still better
from the prominent rock (cut into an octagonal form, pro-
bably to serve a religious purpose) which stands in the
plain about fifty yards in front of the north-west corner of
Pion and of the Stadium. From either of these points one
looks north-east and east over the valley and the site of the
great Temple of Artemis to the Holy Hill of Ayassoluk,
which overhung the Temple, and to the piled-up ranges
of mountains beyond. Plate H.
The modern visitor to Ephesus rarely finds time or has
inclination to visit St. Paul's Prison : the name is traditional
in the locality, but though the tower was certainly in exist-
ence at the time of St. Paul's residence in the city, there is
no reason to think that he was ever imprisoned in Ephesus.
It is, however, quite probable that in the Byzantine time
the Apostle's name was attached to the hill and fort in
214 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
place of the older name Astyages. Not merely does this
western hill permit a survey over the city and valley almost
equal in completeness to the view from Pion : there is also
a remarkable phenomenon observable here and nowhere
else in Ephesus. At the foot of the hill lies the ancient
harbour, now a marsh dense with reeds. When a wind
blows across the reeds, there rises to the hill-top a strange
vast volume of sound of a wonderfully impressive kind ; the
present writer has sat for several hours alone on the summit,
spell-bound by that unearthly sound, until the approach of
sunset and the prospect of a three hours' ride home com-
pelled departure.
In ancient times by far the most impressive view of
Ephesus was that which unfolded itself before the eyes of
the voyager from the west. But the ch.in;;es that time has
wrought have robbed the modern traveller of that view.
The ancient traveller, official or scholar, trader or tourist,
coming across the ^gean Sea from the west, between Chios
and Samos, sailed into Ephesus. The modern shore is a
harbourless line of sandy beach, unapproachable by a ship.
The plain of Ephesus is distinctly broader near the city
than it is at the present sea-coast. The narrowness of the
entrance, what may be called the sea-gate of the valley, has
been an important factor in determining its history. Some
miles above the city the valley is again narrowed by ridges
projecting from the mountains of Gallesion and Koressoi-.
In this narrow gap are the bridges by which the railv/ay
and the road from Smyrna cross the Cayster, whose banks
here are now only ten feet above sea level, though the direct
distance to the sea is ten kilometres and the river course is
fully sixteen or twenty kilometres. Between these upper
or eastern narrows and the modern sea-coast lies the pic-
r"
^^
^«
Ephesus : the City of Change 2 1 5
turesque Ephesian plain, once the Gulf of Ephesus. The
river Cayster has gradually silted up the gulf to the outer
coast-line beyond the ends of the mountains, and has made
Ephesus seem like an inland city, whereas Strabo in A.D.
20 describes it as a city of the coast.
But about 1 100 B.C. the sea extended right up to the
narrows above Ephesus. Greek tradition in the valley,
which can hardly have reached back farther than 1200 B.C.,
remembered that state of things, when the large rocky
hill, two kilometres north of the Roman city, across the
Cayster, was an island named Syria, and the whole Ephesian
valley was an arm of the sea, dotted with rocky islets, and
bordered by picturesque mountains and wooded promon-
tories. Near the south-eastern end of the gulf, on the
sea-shore, stood the shrine of the Great Goddess, the
Mother, protector, teacher, and mistress of a simple and
obedient people. There was no city at that time ; but the
people, Lelegians and Carians, dwelt after the Anatolian
fashion in villages, and all looked for direction and govern-
ment to the Goddess and to the priests who declared her
will. Ephesus even then had some maritime interests,
directed, like everything else, by the Goddess herself
through her priests. Hence, even when the Temple was
far distant from the receding sea-shore, a certain body of
shipmen (vav^aTovvTG<;) was attached to its service, through
the conservatism of a religion which let no hieratic institu-
tion die. The hill of Ayassoluk, between the Temple and
the railway station, was a defensive centre close at hand
for the servants of the Goddess. History shows that it was
the Holy Hill, though that title is never recorded in our
scanty authorities.
The sense of the holiness of this hill, and of the low
2i6 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
ground beneath its western slope, was never wholly lost
amid all the changes of religion that occurred in ancient
and mediaeval times. On the hill Justinian's great Church
of St. John Theol6gos was built ; the mediaeval town was
called Agios Theologos or Ayo-Thol6go, the Turkish Ayas-
soluk ; and the coins of a Seljuk principality, whose cen-
tre was at this town, bear the legend in mediaeval Latin
Moneta Que Fit In Theologo? Between the church and
the old temple of the goddess stands the splendid mosque
of Isa Bey. The modern traveller, standing on the southern
edge of the large hole, at the bottom of which Mr. Wood
found the temple buried thirty feet deep, looks over temple
and mosque to the Holy Hill and Church of Ayassoluk, as
shown in Plate HI. All the sacred places of all the religions
are close together.
The site of the temple was only found after many years
of search. Those who know the spirit of Anatolian religion,
and the marvellous persistence with which it clings to
definite localities, would have looked for it beside the
mosque, the hill and the church. But it was sought every-
where except in the right place. Professor Kiepert marked
it conjecturally on his plan of Ephesus out in the open
plain near the Cayster, two kilometres west of Ayassoluk ;
and Mr. Wood spent several years and great sums of money
digging pits all over the plain. Afterwards, he went to
the city, searching the public buildings for inscriptions
which might by some chance allude to the temple, and at
last found in the Great Theatre a long inscription which
mentioned a procession going out from the Magnesian Gate
to the temple. He went to the gate, and followed up the
road, which lay deep beneath the ground, till he found the
sacred precinct and finally the temple.
Ephesus : the City of Change 217
Yet this was not the earliest Ephesian sanctuary and
home of the goddess. In her oldest form she was a goddess
of the free wild life of nature, and her first home was in the
southern mountains near the place marked Ortygia on the
map, p. 212. Thence she migrated to dwell near her people
in their more civilised homes on the plain, or rather she, as
the Mother and the Queen-bee, guided her swarming people
to their new abodes, and taught them how to adapt them-
selves to new conditions. But her love for her favourite
wild animals, who had lived round her old home among
the hills, always continued ; and two stags often accompany
her idol, standing one on each side of it : see Fig. 10, p.
174, Fig. 26, p. 364, and Fig. 17, p. 231 ; also p. 264.
But her old home among the mountains was always
sacred. There were there a number of temples, ancient
and recent ; an annual Panegj^ris was held there, at which
there was much competition among the young nobles of
Ephesus in splendour of equipment ; and Mysteries and
sacred banquets were celebrated by an association or re-
ligious club of Kouretes. The myth connected the birth of
Artemis with this place ; and in a sense it was the birthplace
of the goddess and her first Ephesian home.
In Christian times the holiness of this locality was main-
tained. The Mother of God was still associated with it,
though the birth of God could no longer be placed there.
The legend grew that she had come to Ephesus and died
there ; and her home and grave were known. This legend
is at least as old as the Council held in Ephesus A.D, 431.
After the Greek Christians of Ephesus had fled to the
eastern mountains and settled in the village of Kirkindji
they celebrated an annual pilgrimage and festival at the
shrine of the Mother of God, the Virgin of the Gate, Panagia
2i8 XVII. Ephestts : the City of Change
Kapulu. The Christian shrine was at a h'ttle distance from
Ortygia ; both were under the peak of Solmissos (Ala-
Dagh), but Ortygia was on the west side, while the Panagia
was on the north side higher up the mountain ; both peak
and Panagia He outside our map (p. 212), and even Ortygia
is strictly outside the southern limit, though the name
has been squeezed in.
The home and grave of the Mother of God have been
recently discovered by the Roman Catholics of Smyrna,
aided by visions, prayers and faith ; and the attempt has
been made in the last ten years to restore the Ephesian
myth to its proper place in the veneration of the Catholic
Church. The story is interesting, but lies beyond our sub-
ject.* What concerns us is to observe the strong vitality of
local religion in Asia Minor amid all changes of outward
form. The religious centre is moved a little to and fro, but
always clings to a comparatively narrow circle of ground.
The date and even the order of the successive stages in
the history of the Ephesian valley cannot as yet be fully
determined — though Professor iienndorfs expected memoir
will doubtless throw much light on them. About iioo B.C.
the first Greek colonists, coming from Athens, expelled
most of the older population and founded a joint city of
Greeks and the native remnant beside the shrine of their
own Athena, including in their city also a tract along the
skirts of Koressos. Its exact situation has not been deter-
mined ; but it was probably identical with a district called
Smyrna, which lay betv/een Koressos and Pion, partly
inside, partly south-east from, the Hellenic Ephesus.
For four centuries this was the situation of Ephesus.
There was an Ionian city bearing that name on the slopes of
Mount Koressos, and above a mile north was the Temple of
Ephesus : the City of Change 219
the Great Goddess Artemis. The Greek colonists in their
new land naturally worshipped the deity who presided over
the land. Gradually they came to pay more refipect to her
than to their own patroness and guardian deity Athena,
who had led them across the sea from Athens. The holy
village around the Hieron of Artemis can hardly have
existed in this period : Ephesus was moved to the southern
position and transformed into a Greek city. The population
of the city was at first divided into three Tribes, of which
Epheseis the first was evidently the Anatolian division, while
Euonymoi, containing the Athenian colonists, was only the
second (see p. 234).
The sea gradually retreated towards the west during this
period ; and the Temple of Artemis was now a sanctuary
within a large sacred precinct in the plain. But the God-
dess, though worshipped by the Greeks, was not trans-
formed into a Greek deity. She remained an Anatolian
deity in character and in ritual. The Divine nature does
not change.
A new era began after 560 B.C., when Ephesus was
conquered by Croesus. The city was now attached to the
Temple of Artemis ; and the population was moved back
from the higher ground and dwelt once more beside the
Temple. Smyrna, the deserted site of the Ionian Ephesus,
was now behind the city (as Hipponax siys).
The change marked the entire triumph of the Asiatic
or Anatolian element over the Greek in the Ephesian popu-
lation. The Anatolian element had always been strong in
the population of the Greek city ; the Ephesian Goddess was
henceforth the national deity of the city, the patroness of the
family and municipal life. Thus, the change of situation
about 550 B.C. accompanied a change in spirit and character.
220 XVII. EphesMS : the City of Change
Ephesus was not, however, reduced entirely to the pure
Anatolian village system. It was not a mere union of
villages with the Temple as the only centre ; it was a city
with a certain organisation and a certain form of municipal
government. Power was apportioned to the different sections
of the population by the usual Greek device of a division
into Tribes : each Tribe had one vote, and a more numerous
body in one Tribe had no more power than a small number
of citizens in another. It had its own acropolis, probably
the hill of Ayassoluk, overhanging the Temple on the north-
FiG. 12. — A, B. Coin of the Anatolian Ephesus (p. 222).
east. It struck its own coins in silver and electrum (the
sure proof of administrative independence as a city) ; but
they were entirely hieratic in character and types, and for
nearly three centuries after 560 it must be ranked rather as
an Anatolian town than as a Greek city.
It was, indeed, forced, after 479, to join the union of Greek
States which was called the Delian Confederacy ; but it
seceded at the earliest opportunity ; and the Goddess was
alwa)'S inclined to side with the Persians against the Greeks,
and with oligarchic Sparta against democratic Athens.
Ephesus : the City of Change
221
With the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great, after
335, the Greek spirit began to strengthen itself in Ephesus
and in general throughout the country. This is first per-
ceptible in the coinage. The bee, the sacred insect and the
symbol of the Great Goddess, had hitherto always been the
principal type on Ephesian coins. Now about 295 B.C. a
purely Greek type, the head of the Greek Artemis, the
Virgin " Queen and Huntress chaste and fair," was substi-
tuted for the bee on the silver coins, while the less honour-
able copper coinage retained the old hieratic types.
Fig. 13. — A, B. Coin of the Hellenic city Ephesus.
I
The importance of this change of type arises from the
character of the Great Goddess. She is the expression of
a religious belief, which regarded the life of God as embody-
ing and representing the life of nature, and proceeding
according to the analogy of the natural world, so that in
the drama of Divine life there is a God-Father, a Goddess-
Mother, and a Son or a Daughter (the Maiden Kora or
other various ideas), born again and again in the annual
cycle (or sometimes in longer cycles) of existence. The
mutual relations of those beings were often pictured in the
222 XVII. Ephesus: the City of Change
Divine drama according to the analogy of some kind of
earthly life. In the Ephesian ceremonial the life of the
bee was the model : the Great Goddess was the queen-bee,
the mother of her people, and her image was in outline
not unlike the bee, with a grotesque mixture of the human
form : her priestesses were called Melissai (working-bees),
and a body of priests attached to the Temple was called
Essenes (the drones). The shape of the idol is seen in
Fig. lo, p. 174 ; Fig. 26, p. 364. The life-history of the bee,
about which the Greek naturalists held erroneous views
(taking the queen-bee as male, and king of the hive), was
correctly understood in the primitive Ephesian cultus ;
and it is highly probable that the employment for human
use of the bee and of various domesticated animals was
either originated or carried to remarkable perfection in
ancient Asia Minor ; while it is certain that the whole
doctrine and rules of tending those animals had a religious
character and were in close relation to the worship of the
Divine power in its various and varying local embodi-
ments.*
The reverse of the coins tells the same tale as the obverse.
The Anatolian coin shows the palm-tree under which the
goddess was born among- the southern mountains at Ortygia,
and her sacred animal, the stag, cut in half in truly barbaric
style. The Hellenic coin shows the bow and quiver of the
huntress-maiden, and acknowledges the Anatolian goddess
by the small figure of a bee : even in its most completely
Hellenised form Ephesus must still do homage to the native
goddess.
On the other hand Greek religion was strongly anthropo-
morphic, and the Hellenic spirit, as it developed and at-
tained fuller consciousness of its own nature, rejected more
Ephesus : the City of Change 223
and more decisively the animal forms and animal analogies
in which the Anatolian religion delighted.^
Where Greece adopted an Anatolian cult, it tried to free
itself from animal associations, and to transform the Divine
impersonation after the purely human beautiful Hellenic
idea. Thus to substitute the head of the huntress Virgin
Artemis for the bee on the coins was to transform an
Anatolian conception into a Greek figure, and to blazon
the triumph of the Greek spirit over the Oriental.
There followed once more a change in the situation of
Ephesus, accompanying the change in spirit that was being
wrought in the aims and outlook of the city. Ephesus was
moved away from the neighbourhood of the Temple to a
situation not far removed from that of the old Greek city.
The change, naturally, was strenuously resisted by the
priests and the large section of the people that was under
their domination. But the will of King Lysimachus, the
master of the north-west regions of Asia Minor, who carried
on the Hellenising tradition of Alexander, was too strong ;
and hecleverly overcame the unwillingness of the Anatolian
party in the town. The Ephesus of 560-287 B.C. was in a
low-lying situation, surrounded on three sides by higher
ground, and in time of rain a great amount of water poured
down through the town. Lysimachus took advantage of
a heavy rain, and stopped the channels which carried off
the water into the gulf, or the river : the town was flooded,
and the people weie glad to leave it.
The new situation was admirably strong and convenient ;
and the Hellenic Ephesus of this new foundation lasted
for more than a thousand years. Its shape was like a bent
bow, the two ends being Pion on the east and the Hill of
Astyages on the west ; while the sea washed up into the
2 24 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
space between, forming an inner harbour, whose quays
bordered by stately colonnades and public buildings can
still be traced amid the ruins. The outer harbour was part
of the land-locked gulf.
A great street ran from the inner harbour right up to the
base of Pion. The visitor to Ephesus, after landing at the
harbour, would traverse this long straight street, edged by
porticoes, with a series of magnificent buildings on either
hand, until he reached the left front of the Great Theatre
and the beginning of the steep ascent of Pion. The street,
as it has been disclosed by the Austrian excavations, is
the result of a late reconstruction and bears the name of
the Emperor Arcadius, A.D. 395-408 ; but the reconstruc-
tion was only partial, and there can be little doubt that the
general plan of the city in this quarter dates from the
foundation about 287 B.C., and that this great street is the
one which is mentioned in the Bezan text of Acts xix. 28.
A riot was roused by a speech of Demetrius, delivered
probably in a building belonging to a guild of some of
the associated trades.'^ After the passions of the mob and
their apprehension of financial disaster were inflamed, they
rushed forth "into the street," and ran along it shouting
and invoking the goddess, until at last they found them-
selves in front of the Great Theatre. That vast empty
building offered a convenient place for a hasty assembly.
Even this excited mob still retained some idea of method
in conducting business. It was quite in the old Greek
style that they should at once constitute themselves into a
meeting of the Ephesian People, and proceed to discuss
business and pass resolutions. Many a meeting convened
in an equally irregular way, simply through a strong com-
mon feeling without any formal notice had been held in
Ephesus : the City of Change 225
the great Greek cities, and passed important resolutions.
But this meeting was not conducted by persons used to
business and possessing authority with the crowd. It was
a mere pandemonium, in which for more than an hour^
the mob howled like Dervishes, shouting their prayers and
invocations. Then the Secretary addressed the assembly,
and pointed out that such an irregular meeting was not
permitted by the Imperial government, which would regard
this as a mere riot and punish it with the severity which it
always showed to illegal assumption of power. The whole
scene stands out clear before us in Plate I., as we stand at
the top of the Theatre and look across the great open space
and the stage, down the long street to the harbour and the
hill of St Paul (Astyagesj.
The death of Lysimachus in 281 B.C. interrupted and
impeded for a moment the development of the new city,
which he had planned on a great scale. But the position
was favourable ; and it soon became one of the greatest
cities of Asia. Miletus had once been the great sea-port of
the west coast of Asia Minor ; and the main route for the
trade between the interior and the countries of the West
came down the Maeander Valley to Miletus, at the southern
entrance to a great gulf extending fully twenty miles into
the land. But Miletus had suffered greatly when the Ionian
revolt was crushed by the Persians about 500 B.C. ; and
Ephesus then gained an advantage through Persian favour.
Moreover, Ephesus was really a nearer harbour than Miletus
even for trade coming down the Maeander Valley. Finally,
the river Maeander was rapidly silting up its gulf, and the
harbour of Miletus was probably requiring attention to keep
the entrance open ; both the gulf of Miletus, then so large,
and the harbour have in modern times entirely disappeared,
226 XVII. Epkesus : the City of Change
owing to the action of the Maeander. Thus Ephesus was
heir to much of the trade and prosperity which had belonged
to Miletus ; though it was destined in its turn, from a similar
cause, to see its harbour ruined, and its trade and importance
inherited by its rival Smyrna.
Lysimachus had called the new city Arsinoe after his
wife, thus breaking definitely with the old tradition as to
name and the old Ephesian religious connection ; and he
indicated the break by makin,^ the bust of Arsinoe the
principal type on the city coins. The tradition, however,
FiQ. 14. — A, B. Coin of Ephesus under the name Arsinoe.
was too strong ; and another change of name soon oc-
curred, probably at his death in 281 B.C. The coins of the
city began once more to bear the old name of Ephesus.
But the Greek huntress virgin still had the place of honour
on the silver coins, while the bee was the principal type on
the copper coins. The spirit prevalent in the city expresses
itself always on the coins.
Another change took place about 196. Ephesus was
captured by Antiochus the Great ; and the Asiatic spirit
again became dominant through the influence of the Syrian
Ephesus : the City of Change 227
monarch. The bee regained its place as the characteristic
type on the silver coinage. A period of greater freedom
under the Pergamenian influence, 189-133, was marked by
an increase in prosperity, and by a great variety in the
classes ar.d types of Ephesian coinage.
Ephesus formed part of the Roman Province of Asia,
which was organised in 133 B.C. The Roman possession
of the city was temporarily interrupted by the invasion of
King Mithridates in 88 B.C. It was from Ephesus that
he issued orders for the great massacre, in which 80,000
Romans (according to Appian, 150,000 according to Plu-
tarch) were put to death in the Province of Asia. The
Ephesians did not spare even the Roman suppliants at
the altar of the Goddess, disregarding the right of asylum
which had hitherto been universally respected, even by in-
vaders. But Sulla soon reconquered Asia ; and Ephesus
remained undisturbed in Roman possession for many cen-
turies, though sacked by the Goths in A.u. 263.
In the Roman Province of Asia, Pergamum, the old
capital of the Kings, continued to be the titular capital ;
but Ephesus, as the chief harbour of Asia looking towards
the west, was far more important than an ordinary city of
the Province. It was the gate of the Province, both on the
sea-way to Rome, and also on the great central highway
leading from Syria by Corinth and Brundisium to Rome.
The Roman governors naturally fell into the habit of enter-
ing the Province by way of Ephesus, for there was, one
might almost say, no other way at first ; and this custom
soon became a binding rule, with uninterrupted precedents
to guarantee it. After the harbour of Ephesus had grown
more difficult of access in the second century, and other
harbours (probably Smyrna in particular) began to contest
228 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
its right to be the official port of entrance, the Emperor
Caracalla confirmed the custom of "First Landing" at
Ephesus by an Imperial rescript.
The drawing in Fig. 15 expresses the Ephesian pride
in this right. It shows a Roman war-vessel, propelled by
oars, not sails, lightly built, active and independent of winds.
The legend " First Landing " (^A Kara-nXov^i) marks it as
the ship that conveys the Proconsul to his landing-place in
Ephesus. The coin was struck under Philip, A.D. 244-8 ;
but the right was of great antiquity.
Fio. 15. — Ephesus the first landing-place.
The type of a ship occurs in another form with a different
meaning on Ephesian coins. A ship under sail, which is
shown in Fig. 16, is a merchant vessel ; and indicates the
maritime trade that frequented the harbour of Ephesus."
Even if no other evidence were known, this type would
furnish sufficient proof that Ephesus possessed a harbour.
The same type occurs on coins of Smyrna, but not of any
other of the Seven Cities ; because none of the others had
harbours.
Not only was Ephesus the greatest trading city of the
Ephesus : the City of Change
229
Province Asia, and also of all Asia north of Taurus (as
Strabo says) ; it derived further a certain religious authority
in the whole Province from the Great Goddess Artemis.
The Ephesian Artemis was recognised, even in the first
century after Christ, as in some sense a deity of the whole
Province Asia. This belief was probably a creation of the
Roman period and the Roman unity; and it deserves fuller
notice as an instructive instance of the effect produced by a
Roman idea working itself out in Greek forms.
The Roman administrative idea " Province " was expressed
Fio. 16. — The sea-borne commerce of Ephesus.
by the Greek word " Nation " : in Strabo '* the Nation Asia **
{ji 'Acria TO Wvosi) corresponds to the Latin Asia Provincia.
This Greek rendering shows a truly creative instinct : in
place of a mere external unity produced by conquest and
compulsion it substitutes an internal and organic unity
springing from national feeling. But the " Nation " must
necessarily have a national religion : without the common
bond of religion no real national unity was possible or con-
ceivable to the Greek and the Anatolian mind. As the
bond the Imperial policy set up the State religion, the
230 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
worship of the Majesty of Rome and of the reigning Emperor
as the incarnate God in human form on earth (J>r<zsens
divus) and of the deceased Emperors who had returned to
Heaven — after the fashion described in chapter x. But
while the Province loyally accepted this religion, it was
not satisfied with it. There was a craving after a native
Asian deity, a more real Divine ideal : the Imperial religion
was after all a sham religion, and no amount of shows and
festivals and pretended religious form could give it religious
reality or satisfy the deep-seated religious cravings of the
Asian mind. A deity who had been a power from of old
in the land was wanted, and not a deity who was invented
for the purpose and the occasion.
In the circumstances of the country, and in conformity
with the ideas of the time, such a deity could be found only
in the tutelary divinity of some great, leading city ; and
practically only two cities were of national Asian standing,
Pergamum and Ephesus. As we have seen in chapter x.,
the Pergamenian gods, Dionysos the Leader (Kathegemon)
and Asklepiosthe Saviour (Soter), were being pushed towards
that position, and the towns of Asia were encouraged to
adopt the worship of these two deities alongside of their
own native gods.^" But the Ephesian Goddess had a
stronger influence than the deities of Pergamum, for every
city of Asia was brought into trading and financial relations
with Ephesus, and thus learned to appreciate the power of
the Goddess. Every city became familiarised with transac-
tions in which the gods of the two parties were named, the
Ephesian Artemis and the god or goddess of the city to
which the other contracting party belonged. In this way
Artemis of Ephesus was in A.D. 55 the deity "whom all
Asia and the civilised world worshipped ". A commentary
Ephesus : the City of Change 231
on these words of Acts xix. 27 is furnished by an inscription
of Akmonia in Phrygia, dated 85 A.D., recording the terms
of a will, in which the testator invokes as overseers and
witnesses a series of deities, the Divine Emperors and the
gods of his country, Zeus and Asklepios the Saviour and
Artemis of Ephesus : here Zeus is the native Acmonian
god, and Asklepios and Artemis are the two provincial
gods belonging to the two capitals, the official and the
virtual, ^^
While Ephesus was ranked in the estimation of the world
Fio. 17.— The Altar of Augustus in the precinct of Artemis.
by her goddess Artemis, the Imperial worship was not
neglected. A shrine and a great altar of Augustus was
placed in the sacred precinct of the goddess in the earlier
years of his reign : it is taken as a type on coins of the
Commune (Fig. 17), where the two sacred stags (compare
Fig. 26, p. 364 ff.) mark the close connection between the
Imperial and the Ephesian religion even at that early time
(see p. 123).
This was a purely municipal, not a Provincial, cult of
Augustus ; and in the competition among the cities of Asia
232 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
in A.D. 26 for the honour of the temple to Tiberius (p. 254)
Ephesus was passed over by the Senate on the ground that
it was devoted to the worship of Artemis. But Provincial
temples of the Imperial religion were built in Ephesus, one
under Claudius or Nero, one under Hadrian, and a third
under Severus ; and the city boasted that it was Temple-
Warden or Neokoros of three Emperors.
Sometimes it styles itself " four times Neokoros " ; but
the fourth Temple- Wardenship seems to be of Artemis, not
of a fourth Emperor ; though the fact that the title (which
Fig. 18. — ^The four Temple- Wardenships of Ephesus.
ordinarily was restricted to Imperial temples) was allowed
in respect of the temple of Artemis shows that a very close
relation was formed between the Imperial religion and the
worship of Artemis as a goddess of the whole Province. A
coin shows the four temples, containing the statues of
Artemis and three Emperors, and marks the closeiiess of
the connection between the cults (Fig. 1 8).
Two subjects still claim some notice, the changes in the
relation of sea and land, and the changes in the constitution
of the city
Ephesus : the City of Change 233
The stages of the former cannot be precisely dated ; but
the Gulf of Ephesus was gradually filled up as the centuries
passed by, and navigation was after a time rendered difficult
by shallows and changes of depth, caused by the silting
action of the Cayster. The entrance to the gulf grew
narrower ; and a channel was not easily kept safe for ships.
Engineering operations, intended to improve the water-way,
were carried out by the Pergamenian kings of the second
century B.C. and by the Romans in the first century after
Christ ; these show the time when the evil was becoming
serious. When the ship in which St. Paul travelled from
Troas to Jerusalem in A.D. 57 sailed past Ephesus without
entering the harbour, this may probably be taken as a sign
that ships were beginning to avoid Ephesus unless it was
necessary to take or discharge cargo and passengers.
The state of the coast during the second century after
Christ is shown by the following incident. Apollonius of
Tyana, defending himself before Domitian, spoke of Ephesus
as having now outgrown the site on which it had been placed
and extended to the sea.^^ This furnishes a conclusive proof
both that the sea no longer reached up to Ephesus when
the speech was composed, and that it was not so distant
from the city as the modern sea-shore, for it is impossible
to suppose that the city ever reached to the present coast-
line. The words probably imply that the sea-shore was
near the lower {i.e. western) end of the Hermaion, and that
Ephesus extended into the valley of the stream which flows
from Ortygia to join the Cayster now, but at that time fell
into the sea. It remains uncertain whether Philostratus
composed the speech about 210 or found it in his authorities.
The difference however is not serious. There is no reason
to think that the words are as old as Apollonius's supposed
234 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
trial about A.D. 90. They represent the ideas that were
floating in the Asian world, A.D. 100-200; and even a
century would not produce much difference in the coast line.
But even in the second and third centuries after Christ
Ephesus was still a great trading city, and therefore must
have still had a harbour open, though not easy of access.
It is certain that only energetic engineering work kept an
open channel. The last kilometre of the modern river
course is straight, in contrast with the winding course im-
mediately above ; the channel is embanked with a carefully
built wall, in order to increase the scour of the water ; and
this part of the course is evidently the result of a great
and well-designed scheme for improving the bed of the river.
Probably, this was a new channel, cut specially in order to
avoid the shallows of the entrance to the gulf.
The ultimate result, however, is certain, Ephesus ceased
to be accessible for shipping, and the city harbour became
an inland marsh. It is probable that this result had been
accomplished before the time of Justinian, 527-563 A.D. ;
he chose Ayassoluk for the site of his great Church of St.
John Theologos, and this site implies that all thought of
maritime relations had ceased.
The constitution of Ephesus sought to maintain by a
division into Tribes an equipoise between the diverse ele-
ments which were united in the city. Apparently there were
originally three, Epheseis, including the native population,
Euonymoi, the Athenian colonists, and Bembinaioi (Bem-
bineis), possibly the colonists of other Greek regions (taking
name from Bembina, a village of Argolis, beside Nemea).
Two more Tribes, Teioi and Karenaioi, were introduced to
accommodate new bodies of settlers from the Ionian city
Teos and, presumably, from Mysia (where the town Karene
Ephesus : the City of Change 235
was situated). Ephorus, who wrote in the middle of the
fourth century, describes these as the five Ephesian Tribes.^^
A sixth Tribe was introduced at some later time ; but
the date of its formation is uncertain. It is mentioned
under the name Sebaste, i.e. Augustan, a name given to it
in honour of Augustus ; but the Tribe was not first insti-
tuted then, for, had that been so, its divisions (Chiliastyes)
would have naturally been called by names characteristic
of the period ; but they bear names which point to an
earlier origin. It would therefore appear that the new name
Sebaste was given to one of the existing Tribes ; and the
latest formed Tribe was chosen for the purpose. As to the
origin of the sixth Tribe, nothing is known except that it
was later than about 340 B.C., and older than the time of
Augustus, The only two occasions on which the formation
of a new Tribe seems reasonably probable were the refounda-
tion by Lysimachus about 287 B.C., and the remodelling of
the constitution by Antiochus II., 261-246 B.C. Lysimachus
introduced bodies of new citizens from the Ionian cities of
Lebedos and Colophon ; but he did not form a new Tribe
to hold them. He classed the Lebedians as a special
division (Chiliastys) of the Tribe Epheseis, which he evi-
dently instituted under the name Lebedioi ; and if a
complete list of the Chiliastyes were preserved, we might
find another called Colophon ioi. Apparently Lysimachus
was anxious to avoid a too marked break with the past, and
left the old Tribes unchanged in names and number. It
remains that the sixth Tribe must have been formed by
Antiochus II. Now it has been shown in chapter xii. that
Antiochus placed in Ephesus a body of Jews as citizens,
and it is expressly recorded that he settled the constitution
on a lasting basis, which remained unchanged at least until
236 XVII. Ephesus : the City of Change
15 B.C. It has also been shown in that chapter that a body
of Jewish citizens could be introduced into a Hellenic city
only by placing them in a special Tribe. The old five
Tribes had their own long-established religious rites, which
could not be avoided by any member, and were impossible
for Jews. A new Tribe was required whose bond of unity
should not be of a kind to exclude the Jews. Antiochus
formed a sixth Tribe and placed all his new citizens in it.
The original name of this Tribe is unknown ; but it was
probably such as to give an appearance of Hellenic character
(as the Jewish Tribe in Alexandria was called Macedones).
The only known Chiliastyes of this Tribe were Labandeos
(which seems Carian, and may mark a body of Carian
colonists) and Sieus (from the name of an aquatic plant like
parsley, that grew in the marshes near Ephesus) : the latter
seems intended to give a native appearance to this latest and
most foreign of classes in the State.
It is not necessary to suppose that the new Tribe consisted
exclusively of Jews. It would be sufficient to make two
provisions : first, one of the Chiliastyes of the new Tribe
must have been reserved for the Jews ; secondly, the bond
of unity in the whole Tribe must not be a pagan ritual.
It must be observed that, while it was hardly possible for
the king to tamper with the religion of any of the old
Tribes, the character of the new one was entirely within his
control.
Note. — Prof. Benndorf has kindly sent me the proofs of
the article mentioned on p. 211. He thinks that the em-
ibankment of the last part of the river channel may date
from Hadrian, which agrees with the view here taken,
p. 233 t
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS.
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, h$
that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lamps.
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not
bear evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they
are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear
for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against
thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or else I come to thee,
and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this
thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.
To him that overcometh, to him will I give to cat of the tree of life, which
is in the Paradise of God.
The message to the Church in Ephesus comes from Him
" that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, that walketh
in the midst of the seven golden lamps ". If we review
the openings of the other six letters, none could so appropri-
ately be used to the Church in Ephesus as this description.
The only exordium which could for a moment be compared
in suitability with it is the opening of the Sardian letter,
** he that hath the Seven Spirits of God and the Seven
Stars". The second part in that case is almost identical
with part of the Ephesian exordium, but the first part is
different.
The similarity between the Ephesian and Sardian letters
is not confined to the opening address, but can be traced
238 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
throughout. If Ephesus was the practical centre and lead-
ing city of Asia at that time, though not the official capital
of the Province, Sardis was the ancient capital of Lydia,
and the historical centre of the Asian cities ; the tone and
spirit of the history of the two Churches had been to a
certain degree analogous ; and therefore a resemblance in
the letters was natural. The Author of the letters assumes
much the same character in addressing these two cities,
emphasi'^^ing in both cases his relation with all the Seven
Churches. The capital of a country stands for the whole,
and he who addresses the practical capital may well lay
stress upon his relation to all the other cities of the coun-
try. But the similarities and differences between these two
letters can be discussed more satisfactorily when we take
up the Sardian letter and have both before us.
Ephesus, as in practical importance the leading city of
the Province Asia, might be said in a sense to be the centre,
to be in the midst of the Seven Churches ; and the Divine
figure that addresses her appropriately holds in His hand
the Seven Stars, which "are the Seven Churches". The
leading city can stand for the whole Province, as the
Province can stand for the whole Church ; and that was
so customary and usual as to need no explanation or
justification. To the Christians, Ephesus and Asia were
almost convertible terms ; Ephesus stood for Asia, Asia
was Ephesus. Hence in the list of equivalent names com-
piled by some later scribe,^ the explanation is formally
given, No. 40, ^Aaia rj ''E(f)eao^, "Asia" means the city
Ephesus.
As to the holding of the seven stars, Mr. Anderson
Scott, in his admirable little edition, published in the
Century Bible, remarks that " in the image before the eye
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus 239
of the Seer the seven stars probably appear as a chain of
glittering jewels hanging from the hand of Christ ". This
image suits excellently the description which we have
given already of the Seven Churches as situated on the
circling road that goes forth from Ephesus, traverses them
all in succession and returns to its point of origin in the
representative city of the Province. The analogy from
pagan art quoted on p. 259 shows how readily this figure
would be understood by the Asian readers.
After the initial address, the letter begins, according to
the usual plan, with the statement that the Author has full
knowledge of the character and fortunes of the Church.
He knows what the Ephesians have done.
The past history of the Ephesian Church had been one
of labour and achievement, enduring and energetic. Above
all it had been distinguished by its insight into the true
character of those who came to it with the appearance of
Apostles. It lay on the great highway of the world, visited
by many Christian travellers, some coming to it for its own
sake, others merely on their way to a more distant destina-
tion. Especially, those who were travelling to and from
Rome for the most part passed through Ephesus: hence
it was already, or shortly afterwards became, known as the
highway of the martyrs, "the passage-way of those who
are slain unto God," as Ignatius called it a few years later,
i.e., the place through which must pass those who were on
their way to Rome to amuse the urban population by their
death in the amphitheatre. Occasionally, it is true, they
were conducted to Rome by a different road. Ignatius,
for example, did not pass through Ephesus, but was taken
along the overland route, for some reason unknown to us.
The reason did not lie in the season of the year, for he was
240 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
at Smyrna on 7th August, and probably reached Rome on
17th October, an open time for navigation. But Ignatius
knew, though he himself was led by another route, that the
ordinary path of death for Eastern martyrs was by land to
Ephesus and thence by sea to Rome.^
Among the travellers there came to Ephesus, or passed
through it, many who claimed to be teachers ; but the
Ephesian Church tested them all ; and, when they were
false, unerringly detected them and unhesitatingly rejected
them.
The recital of the past history and the services of the
Church occupies a much greater proportion of the Ephesian
letter than of any other of the Seven. The writer dwells
upon this topic with emphatic appreciation. After de-
scribing the special kind of work in which the Ephesians
had been most active and useful, he returns again to pmise
their career of patience and steadfastness, and describes
their motive — ''for my nmne's sake' — which enhances their
merit. The best counsel, the full and sufficient standard of
excellence for the Ephesians, is to do as they did of old.
Others may have to improve ; but Ephesians are urged not
to fall short of their ancient standard of action.
The best commentary on this is found in the letter of
Ignatius to the Ephesians, with its profound and frank
admiration, which might seem almost to be exaggerated
were it not justified by the language of St. John. The
Syrian bishop wrote as one who felt that he was honoured
in associating with the envoys from the Ephesian Church
and in being " permitted by letter to bear it company, and
to rejoice with it". Ignatius shows clearly in his letter the
reasons for his admiration. The characteristics which he
praises in the Ephesian Church are the same as those which
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus 241
St. John mentions. And yet they are so expressed as to
exclude the idea that he remembered the words of this
letter and either consciously or unconsciously used them :
" I ought to be trained for the contest by you in faith, in
admonition, in endurance, in long suffering," § 3 : " for ye
all live according to truth and no heresy hath a home
among you ; nay, ye do not so much as listen to any one
if he speak of ought else save concerning Jesus Christ in
truth," § 6 : "as indeed ye are not deceived," § 8 : "I
have learned that certain persons passed through you from
Syria,^ bringing evil doctrine ; whom ye suffered not to
sow seed in you, for ye stopped your ears," § 9 : " you
were ever of one mind with the Apostles in the power of
Jesus Christ," § 11.
The ideas are the same; but they are scattered about
through Ignatius's letter, and not concentrated in one place.
Moreover the words are almost entirely different. The
only important words common to those passages of Igna-
tius and the letter which we are studying are " endurance,"
vTrofiovi], which almost forced itself on any writer, and
" Apostles " ; but Ignatius speaks of the true Apostles, St.
John of the false. The idea of testing, which is prominent
in St. John, is never explicitly mentioned by Ignatius, and
yet it is implied and presupposed in the passages quoted
from §§ 6, 8, 9. But he was interested only in the result,
the successful championing of truth, whereas St. John was
necessarily interested quite as much in the way by which
the Ephesians attained the result.
The probability, then, is that Ignatius was not familiar
with the Ephesian letter of St. John. He could hardly have
kept so remote from the expression of this letter, if it had
been clear and fresh in his memory. Hence his testimony
242 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesui
may be taken as entirely independent of the Revelation,
and as showing that the reputation of Ephesus in the
Christian world about the beginning of the second century
had not grown weaker or less brilliant in the short interval
since St. John wrote.
But, while nothing is required of the Ephesians except
that they should continue to show their old character, yet
a return to their earlier spirit was urgently necessary. The
fault of the Ephesian Church was that it no longer showed
the same spirit : the intense enthusiasm which characterised
the young Church had grown cooler with advancing age.
That was the serious danger that lay before them ; and it
is the common experience m every reform movement, in
every religion that spreads itself by proselytising. The
history of Mohammedanism shows it on a large scale. No
religion has ever exercised a more rapid and almost mag-
ical influence over barbarous races than Islam has often
done, elevating them at once to a distinctly higher level of
spiritual and intellectual life than they had been capable of
even understanding before. But in the case of almost every
Mohammedanised race, after the first burst of enthusiastic
religion, under the immediate stimulus of the great moral
ideas that Mohammed taught, has been exhausted, its
subsequent history presents a spectacle of stagnation and
retrogression.*
The problem in this and in every other such case is how
to find any means of exercising a continuous stimulus,
which shall maintain the first enthusiasm. Something is
needed, and the writer of this letter perhaps was thinking
of some such stimulus in the words that follow, containing
a threat as to what shall be done to Ephesus if it con-
tinues to degenerate, and fails to reinvigorate its former
The Letter to the Church in Epkesus 243
earnest enthusiasm. But a less serious penalty is threat-
ened in this case than in some of the other letters — not
destruction, nor rejection, not even the extirpation of the
weak or erring portion of the Church, but only " I come
in displeasure at thee, and will move thy lamp, the Church,
out of its place".
Some commentators regard the threat as equivalent to a
decree of destruction, and point to the fact that the site is
a desert and the Church extinct as a proof that the threat
has been fulfilled. But it seems impossible to accept this
view. It is wrong method to disregard the plain meaning,
which is not destruction but change ; and equally so to
appeal to present facts as proving that destruction must
have been meant by this figurative expression.
Equally unsatisfactory is another interpretation, that
Ephesus shall be degraded from its place of honour, which
implies an unconscious assumption that Ephesus already
occupied its later position of metropolitan authority in the
Asian Church. As yet Ephesus had no principate in the
Church, except what it derived from its own character and
conduct : while its character continued, its influence must
continue ; if its character degenerated, its influence must
disappear. Ephesus has always remained the titular head
of the Asian Church ; and the Bishop of Ephesus still bears
that dignity, though he no longer resides at Ephesus, but
at Magnesia ad Sipylum. For many centuries, however,
Smyrna has been in practice a much more important See
than Ephesus.
The natural meaning must be taken. The threat is so
expressed that it must be understood of a change in local
position : " / will move thy Church out of its place " (^Kivija-a
itC TOV TOTTOV aVT7](i).
244 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
Surely in this milder denunciation we may see a prool
that the evil in Ephesus was curable. The loss of enthu-
siasm which affected that Church was different in kind from
the lukewarmness that affected Laodicea, and should be
treated in a different way. The half-heartedness of the
Laodiceans was deadly, and those who were so affected
were hopeless, and should be irrevocably and inexorably
rejected. But the cooling of the first Ephesian enthusiasm
was a failing that lies in human nature. The failing can
be corrected, the enthusiasm may be revived ; and, if the
Ephesians cannot revive it among themselves by their own
strength, their Church shall be moved out of its place.
The interpretation of Grotius comes near the truth : " I
will cause thy population to flee away to another place".
We do not know whether the form in which he expresses
his interpretation is due to the belief current in the country
that the Christian people of Ephesus fled to the mountains
and settled in a village four hours distant, called Kirkindje,
which their descendants still consider to be the representa-
tive of the ancient Ephesus, But if Grotius had that fact
in view, his interpretation does not quite hit the mark.
The writer of the Seven Letters was not thinking of an
arbitrary fact of that kind, which might befall any city, and
was in no way characteristic of the real deep-seated nature
of one city more than of another. He had his eye fixed
on the broad permanent character of Ephesian scenery and
surroundings, and his thought moved in accord with the
nature of the locality, and expressed itself in a form that
applied to Ephesus and to no other of the Seven Churches.
There is one characteristic that belongs to Ephesus, dis-
tinctive and unique among the cities of the Seven Churches •
it is change. In most ancient sites one is struck by the
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus 245
immutability of nature and the mutability of all human
additions to nature. In Ephesus it is the shifting character
of the natural conditions on wh ch the city depends for
prosperity that strikes every careful observer and every
student either of history or of nature. The scenery and the
site have varied from century to century. Where there was
water there is now land : what was a populated city in one
period ceased to be so in another, and has again become
the centre of life for the valley: where at one time there
was only bare hillside or the gardens of a city some miles
distant, at another time there was a vast city crowded with
inhabitants, and this has again relapsed into its earlier con-
dition : the harbour in which St, John and St. Paul landed
has become a mere marsh, and the theatre where the excited
crowd met and shouted to Diana, desolate and ruinous as it
is, has been more permanent than the harbour. The relation
of sea and land has changed in quite unusual fashion : the
broad level valley was once a great inlet of the sea, at the
head of which was the oldest Ephesus, beside the Temple
of the Goddess, near where the modern village stands. But
the sea receded and the land emerged from it. The city
followed the sea, and changed from place to place to main-
tain its importance as the only harbour of the valley.
All those facts were familiar to the Ephesians ; they are
recorded for us by Strabo, Pliny, and Herodotus, but
Ephesian belief and record are the foundation for the state-
ments of those writers. A threat of removing the Church
from its place would be inevitably understood by the
Ephesians as a denunciation of another change in the site
of the city, and must have been so intended by the writer.
Ephesus and its Church should be taken up, and moved
away to a new spot, where it might begin afresh on a new
246 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
career with a better spirit. But it would be still Ephesus,
as it had always hitherto been amid all changes.
Such was the meaning that the Ephesians must have
taken from the letter; but no other of the Seven Cities
would have found those words so clear and significant.
Others would have wondered what they might mean, as
the commentators are still wondering and debating. To
the Ephesians the words would seem natural and plain.
But after this threat the letter returns to the dominant
note. The Ephesian Church was still, as it had been from
the beginning, guarding the way, testing all new teachers,
and rejecting with sure judgment the unworthy. In the
question which beyond all others seemed to the writer the
critical problem of the day the Ephesians agreed with him,
and hated the works of the Nicolaitans. In two other
letters that party in the early Church is more fully de-
scribed. In the Ephesian letter the Nicolaitans are only
named.
The promise contained in the perorations of the Seven
Letters is different in every case, and is evidently adapted
in each instance to suit the general tone of the letter and
the character and needs of the city. To the Ephesian who
overcometh, the promise is that he shall eat of the tree of
life, which is in the Garden of God. Life is promised both
to Smyrna and to Ephesus ; yet how differently is it ex-
pressed in the two cases. Smyrna must suffer, and would
be faithful unto death, but it shall not be hurt of the second
death. Ephesus had been falling from its original high
level of enthusiasm ; it needed to be quickened and rein-
vigorated, and none of the promises made to the other
Churches would suit its need ; but the fruit of the tree of
life is the infallible cure, the tree whose very leaves were
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus 247
for the healing of the nations, the tree in which every true
Christian acquires a right of participation (xxii. 2, 14). The
expression is, of course, symbolical ; and its real meaning
can hardly be specified. It would be vain to ask what St.
John had precisely in his mind ; but it might be a more
hopeful task to inquire what meaning the Asian readers
would take from the phrase. It is a Jewish expression ;
but the Asian readers would take it in the way in which
many Jewish ideas seem to have become efficacious in the
Province, viz.^ in a sort of syncretism of Jewish and native
Asian thought
Every image or idea in this letter finds a parallel or an
illustration in Jewish thought and literature. Yet it cannot
be said with truth that the letter is exclusively Jewish in
tone. There is nothing in it which would seem strange or
foreign to the Hellenic or Hellenised people for whom the
book was in the first instance written. Even the tree of
life carried no un-Hellenic connotation to Ephesian readers.
The tree was as significant a symbol of life-giving Divine
power to the Asian Greeks as to the Jews, though in a
different way. Trees had been worshipped as the home of
the Divine nature and power from time immemorial, and
were still so worshipped, in Asia Minor as in the ancient
world generally. On some sacred tree the prosperity and
safety of a family or tribe or city was often believed to
depend. When the sacred olive-tree on the Acropolis of
Athens put forth a new shoot after the city had been
burned by the Persians, the people knew that the safety
of the State was assured. The belief was widely enter-
tained that the life of a man was connected with some
tree, and returned into that tree when he died. The tree
which grew on a grave was often thought to be penetrated
248 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
with the spirit and life of the buried man; and an old
Athenian law punished with death any one that had cut
a holm-oak growing in a sepulchral ground, i.e. heroon.^
Sacred trees are introduced in Fig. 4, p. 6^^ Fig. 23, p. 285,
and Fig. 14A, p. 220.
It will probably seem to many persons an unworthy and
even irrational procedure to trace any connection between
the superstitious veneration of sacred trees and the sym-
bolism of St. John. But it was shown in chapter xiii.
that although Ignatius abhorred paganism, and though the
memory of his pagan days caused a lasting sense of shame
in his mind, yet he could compare the life of a Christian
congregation to the procession at a pagan festival, and
could use symbolism derived from the pagan mysteries to
shadow forth the deepest thoughts of Christianity. In all
those cases the same process takes place : the religious
ideas of the pagans are renovated in a Christian form, en-
nobled and spiritualised. The tree of life in the Revelation
was in the mind of the Ephesians a Christianisation of the
sacred tree in the pagan religion and folk-lore : it was a
symbolic expression which was full of meaning to the Asian
Christians, because to them the tree had always been the
seat of Divine life and the intermediary between Divine and
human nature. The problem which was constantly present
to the ancient mind in thinking of the relation of man to
God appears here : how can the gulf that divides human
nature from the Divine nature be bridged over ? how can
God come into effective relation to man ? In the holy tree
the Divine life is bringing itself closer to man. He who can
eat of the tree of life is feeding on the Divine power and
nature, is strengthening himself with the body and the blood
of Christ. The idea was full of power to the Asian readers.
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus 249
But to us the "tree of life" carries in itself little mean-
ing. It seems to us at first little more than a metaphor
in this passage, and in Rev. xxii. it appears to us to be a
mere detail in a rather fanciful and highly poetical allegory.
A considerable effort is needed before we can even begin
dimly to appreciate the power which this idea had in the
minds of Ephesian readers : we have to recreate the
thoughts and mind of that time, before we can understand
their conception of the "tree of life".
Accordingly, although the " tree of life " is different from
any expression that occurs, so far as known, in Greek
literature, it contains nothing that would seem strange
or exotic to Greeks or Asians. And every other idea in
the letter would seem equally natural, and would appeal
to equally familiar beliefs and habits of life. While we
need not doubt that the writer took the " tree of life " from
his own Jewish sphere of thought, yet he certainly avoids
in all these letters anything that is distinctly anti-Hellenic
in expression. So far as the Seven Letters are concerned,
he is in advance of, not in hostility to, the best side of
Hellenic thought and education.
Thus ends the le'ter. It is a distinctly laudatory one,
when it is examined phrase by phrase : i! shows admiratic.n
and full apprec ation of a great career and a noble history.
Yet it does not leave a pleasant impression of the Ephtsian
Church ; and there is a lack of co' dial and sympathetic spirit
in it. The writer seems not to have loved the Ephesians as
he did the Smyrnaeans and Philadelphians. He respected
and esteemed them. He felt that they possessed every
great quality excep' a loving enthusiasm. But when, in
order to finish with a word of praise, he see'cs for some
definite laudable fact in their conduct at the present moment,
250 XVIII. The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
the one thing which he finds to say is that they hated those
whom he hated. Their disapproval and their hatred were
correctly apportioned : in sympathy and love they were
deficient. A common hatred is a poor and ephemeral
ground of unanimity.
The Ephesians stand before us in the pathway of the
world, at the door by which the West visited the East,
and from which the East looked out upon the West, as a
dignified people worthy of their great position, who had
lived through a noble history in the past, and were on the
whole not unworthy of it in the present, who maintained
their high tradition — and yet one thing was lacking, the
power of loving and of making themselves loved.
CHAPTER XIX.
. SMYRNA: THE CITY OF LIFE.
Smyrna was founded as a Greek colony more than a thou-
sand years before Christ ; but that ancient yEolian Smyrna
tf^as soon captured by Ionian Greeks, and made into an
Ionian colony. Ionian Smyrna was a great city, whose
dominion extended to the east far beyond the valley, and
whose armies contended on even terms against the power
of Lydia. Battles fought against the Lydians on the banks
of the Hermus are mentioned by the Smyrnaean poet
Mimnermus in the seventh century. But Lydian power
with its centre at Sardis was increasing during that period,
and Smyrna gradually gave way before it, until finally the
Greek city was captured and destroyed about 600 B.C. by
King Alyattes. In one sense Smyrna was now dead ; the
Greek city had ceased to exist ; and it was only in the
third century that it was restored to the history of Hellenic
enterprise in Asia. There was, however, a State named
Smyrna during that long interval, when the Ionian Smyrna
was merely a historical memory. It is mentioned in an
inscription of 368 B.C. as a place of some consequence ; but
it was no longer what the Greeks called a city. It was
essential to the Greek idea of a city that it should have
internal freedom, that it should elect its own magistrates to
manage its own affairs, and that its citizens should have
the education and the spirit which spring from habitually
(251)
252 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
■
thinking imperially. This Asiatic Smyrna between about
600 and 290 was, as Strabo says, a loose aggregate of
villagers living in various settlements scattered over the
plain and the surrounding hills ; it possessed no sovereign
power or self-governing institutions ; and it has left no
trace on history. Aristides, however, says that there was a
town in that period intermediate in position between the
old and the later city.
Smyrna was treated more harshly than Ephesus by the
Lydian conquerors : apparently the reason was that it was
more typically Greek and more hostile to the Asiatic spint
of the Lydian realm, whereas the native Anatolian element
was stronger in Ephesus. The purely Greek Smyrna could
not be made to wear Lydian harness, and was destroyed.
The half- Asiatic Ephesus was easily changed into a useful
Lydian town without the complete sacrifice of autonomy
and individuality.
The design was attributed to Alexander the Great of
marking the triumph of Hellenism by refounding Greek
Smyrna ; and later coins of Smyrna show his dream, in
which the Smyrnaean goddesses, the two Nemeseis or Fates,
appeared to him and suggested to him that plan. But it
was left for King Lysimachus, after Antigonus had made a
beginning, to carry the design into effect. His refoundation
of Smyrna and of Ephesus was a part of a great scheme,
the completion of which was prevented by his death. The
new Hellenic Smyrna was in a different place from the old
Ionian city. The earlier city had been on a steep lofty
hill overhanging on the north the extreme eastern recess
of the gulf: the new city was on the south-east shore of
the gulf about two miles away. The aim in the former
was security against sudden attack, but there could never
Smyrna: the City of Life 253
have been beside it a very good harbour. The later city
was intended to be a maritime and trading centre, a good
harbour and a convenient starting-point for a land-road to
the east. The type of a merchant ship, which appears on
its coins, as on those of Ephesus (Fig. 16, p. 229), indicates
its maritime character : see also Fig. 22, p. 266.
Its maritime power was maintained by two ports. One
was a small land-locked harbour, the narrow entrance of
which could be closed by a chain : the other was prob-
ably only the adjacent portion of the gulf which served as
a mooring-ground. The inner harbour lay in the heart of
the modern city, where the bazaars now stand. In that
situation, half surrounded by houses and close under the
hill of Pagos, it was readily liable to grow shallower and to
be ultimately filled up ; but the small ancient ships found
it so useful that the harbour authorities had to keep it care-
fully. In 1402 Tamerlane besieged the lower city, which
was held by the Knights of Rhodes with their stronghold
in a castle commanding the harbour ; and he blocked the
entrance by a mole in the process of his operations. After
the entrance was once closed, the negligent government
of the now Turkish city was not likely to try to reopen
it ; moreover as the size of ships increased, the usefulness
of so small a harbour ceased. Thus the natural process of
filling up the old harbour went on unchecked ; and it has
long disappeared, though it was still visible in the middle
of the eighteenth century and even later.
To its maritime character was due the close association
with Rome which Smyrna formed at an early period. From
the time that the great republic began to interfere in the
affairs of the East, common interests maintained a firm
alliance and "friendship" (according to the Latin term)
254 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
between Rome and Smyrna. A common danger and a
common enemy united them. At first Smyrna was strug-
gling to maintain its freedom against the Seleucid power,
and Rome's Eastern policy sprang out of the agreement
which its great enemy Hannibal had made with the Seleucid
king, Antiochus the Great. At a later time Rome supported
Smyrna as a counterpoise to the too great maritime power
of Rhodes. As early as 195, when Antiochus was still at
the height of his power, Smyrna built a temple and insti-
tuted a worship of Rome ; this bold step was the pledge of
uncompromising adherence to the cause of Rome, while
its fortunes were still uncertain. After a century, when a
Smyrnaean public assembly heard of the distress in a
Roman army during the war against Mithridates, the citi-
zens stripped off their own clothes to send to the shivering
soldiers.
The faithfulness of Smyrna to this alliance was a just
ground of pride to the city, and was fully acknowledged
by her powerful friend. Cicero expressed the Roman feel-
ing that Smyrna was "the city of our most faithful and
most ancient allies " ; and in 26 A.D. the Smyrnaeans argued
before the Senate that the new temple to be dedicated
by the Commune of Asia to Tiberius should be built in
Smyrna, because of their faithful friendship dating from
a time before the East had learned that Rome was the
greatest power in the world ; and they were preferred to
all other cities of the Province. Plate IV.
The view of Smyrna in which its character and situation
are best seen is got from the deck of a ship lying out in the
gulf before the city. The traveller from the west sails up
an arm of the sea, which runs far inland. At the south-
eastern end he finds Smyrna, with the hills behind it on
Smyrna : the City of Life 255
the south and west, the sea on its north side, and on the
east a beautiful little valley, nine miles by four, bounded
by more distant mountains. The buildings of the city rise
out of the water, cluster in the hollow below the hills, and
on the lower skirts of Pagos, "the Hill," or straggle up
irregularly towards the summit. There is a wonderful
feeling of brightness, light, and activity in the scene : in
such a matter only the personal experience can be stated,
but such is the impression that the view has always made
on the present writer. The approach to Constantinople
from the east gives a similar impression ; and part of the
reason lies in the long land-locked sea-way which leads to
the harbour, giving in both cases the appearance of inland
cities with all the advantage of a situation on the sea. The
view in Plate IV. is taken from a point too near the hill ;
our many attempts to get a photograph from a proper
distance have been frustrated by various causes.
The Smyrnaeans were specially proud of the beauty of
their city. The frequent legend on their coins, "First of
Asia," was contested by Pergamum and Ephesus ; all three
were first of Asia in one respect or another : Smyrna defined
her rank on some coins as " First of Asia in beauty and size ".
Strabo says its beauty was due to the handsomeness of
the streets, the excellence of the paving, and the regular
arrangement in rectangular blocks. The picturesque ele-
ment, which he does not mention, was contributed by the
hills and the sea, to which in modern times the groves
of cypress trees in the large Turkish cemeteries must be
added. Groves of trees in the suburbs are mentioned by
Aristides as one of the beauties of the ancient city. On
the west the city included a hill which overhangs the sea
and runs back southward till it nearly joins the western
256 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
end of Pagos : in the angle the road to the south issued
through the Ephesian Gate. The outer edge of the western
hill afforded a strong line of defence, which the wall of
Lysimachus took advantage of; and Pagos constituted an
ideal acropolis, as well as a striking ornament to crown the
beauty of the city.
The citizens were also proud of their distinction in every
branch of literature ; and Apollonius of Tyana is said to
have encouraged them in this, and to have advised them
to rest their self-esteem more in their own character than
in the beauty of their city : " for though," as he said,
" though it is the most beautiful of all cities under the sun,
and makes the sea its own, and holds the fountains of
Zephyrus, yet it is a greater charm to wear a crown of
men than a crown of porticoes and pictures and gold
beyond the standard of mankind : for buildings are seen
only in their own place, but men are seen everywhere and
spoken about everywhere and make their city as vast as
the range of countries which they can visit ".
The words of Apollonius show that "the crown of
Smyrna " was a familiar phrase with the Smyrnaeans ;
and there can be no doubt that the phrase arose from the
appearance of the hill Pagos, with the stately public build-
ings on its rounded top and the city spreading out down
its rounded sloping sides. In fact, the words state plainly
that the crown of Smyrna cons sted of buildings, and, in
the picturesque language of current talk (which always
catches salient features), buildings are likened to a crown
because they stand on a conspicuous place and in an or-
derly way. As to the modern appearance only a personal
impression can be stated : " with Mo nt Pagos and its
ruined castle rising out of the clustering houses, it looks
Smyrna: the City of Life 257
a queenly city ' crowned with her diadem of towers ' " :
so Mrs. Ramsay in 190 1 described Smyrna as it used to
appear from the sea. Until about 1890 the brow of the
rounded hill was crowned with a well-preserved garland
of walls and battlements ; and the appearance of the
circling city, the hill sloping back towards the centre,
and the frowning walls crowning the edge of the rounded
summit, has probably made the same impression on many
travellers.
Aelius Aristides, who lived much in Smyrna, can hardly
find language strong enough to paint the beauty and the
crown of Smyrna.^ He compares the city, as the ideal
city on earth, to the crown of Ariadne shining in the
heavenly constellation. He describes it as sitting like a
statue with its feet planted on sea-shore and harbours and
groves of trees, its middle parts poised equally above the
plain and beneath the summit, and its top in the distance
gently rising by hardly perceptible gradations to the acro-
polis, which offered an outlook over the sea and the town,^
and stood always a brilliant ornament above the city. Thus
Smyrna city was a flower of beauty, such as earth and sun had
never showed to mankind. He repeats the comparison to a
statue and to a flower in several of his orations.* The like-
ness depends partly on the appearance of the city as sloping
up from the sea, partly on the orderly arrangement of the
parts, partly on the circular head with its crown of buildings,
viz.^ Pagos with its acropolis. The idea of the crown is in
his mind, though he varies the phrase : the truth was that
Aristides in his highly wrought orations would not use a
figure tTiat was in everybody's mouth, and he plays with the
idea but rarely uses the word. Several of his highly ornate
sentences become clearer when we notice that he is ex-
258 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
pressing in a series of variations the idea of a crown resting
on the summit of the hill.
When Aristides says that, since Smyrna has been re-
stored after the disastrous earthquake, " Spring's gates and
Summer's are opened by crowns," the reference to some
close connection between Smyrna and the crown is so
marked that Reiske suggests that the Crowns were the
deities of flowers (like Flora in Latin). We now know
that the Crown of Smyrna was the head and bloom of the
city's flower. Again he declares that, by the revival of
Smyrna, " the crown has been preserved to Ionia ".^
The comparison of Smyrna to a flower has a close con-
nection with the " crown ". The crown or garland was
usually a circlet of flowers ; and the mention of a crown
immediately aroused in the ancient mind the thought of a
flower. Crowns were worn chiefly in the worship of the
gods. The worshipper was expected to have on his head a
garland of the flowers or foliage sacred to the god whose
rites he was performing. The guests at an entertainment
were often regarded as worshippers of Bacchus and wore
the sacred ivy : frequently, also, the entertainment was a
feast connecting with the ritual of some other deity, and the
crown varied accordingly. Thus the ideas of the flower
and of the crown suggest in their turn the idea of the god
with whose worship they were connected, i.e., the statue of
the god. The tutelary deity of Smyrna was the Mother-
goddess, Cybele ; and when Aristides pictured Smyrna as
a statue sitting with her feet on the sea, and her head rising
to heaven and crowned with a circlet of beautiful buildings,
he had in mind the patroness and guardian of the city, who
was represented enthroned and wearing a crown of battle-
ments and towers. Her image was one of the most frequent
Smyrna: the City of Life 259
types on the coins of the city, and in many alh'ance-coins
she appears for Smyrna as in Fig. 19. The crown of Smyrna
was the mural crown of Smyrna's goddess. See p. 267.
From the same origin arises his repeated allusion to the
necklace of Smyrna. If there was a crown on the top of
the head, a clearly marked street or any line which encom-
passed the lower part of the hill may be compared to a
necklace.^ He speaks of the city as drawing to itself its
various ornaments of sea and suburbs in a variegated neck-
lace : a figurative expression which recalls the chain of the
Fig. 19. — The Goddess of Smyrna.
Seven Stars hanging from the hand of the Divine Author
of the Seven Letters (as described in the Ephesian Letter :
see p. 239).
But what Aristides chiefly thought of, when he mentions
the necklace, was the splendid Street of Gold, which he al-
ludes to several times in a more or less veiled and figurative
way. He mentions once the streets that took their names
from temples and from gold. Apollonius (as already
quoted) alludes in similar figurative style to the gold of
Smyrna, and connects it with the crown of Smyrna, which
26o XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
shows that it crossed the sloping hill, and by its conspicuous
buildings contributed to that orderly arrangement of edi-
fices which constituted the idea of the crown, Aristides,
likewise, refers to this magnificent street when he says that,
as you traverse the city from west to east, you go from a
temple to a temple and from a hill to a hill. It is sug-
gested in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, iv., p. 554,
that this street ran from the Temple of Zeus Akraios to
the Temple of the Mother-goddess Cybele Sipylene. The
latter was probably on the hill Tepejik on the eastern out-
skirts of the city : the former has been identified recently
by Mr. Fontrier, the chief authority on the topography of
Smyrna, with certain remains on the western slope of Pa^os.^
A street connecting those two temples would curve round
the lower slopes of the hill (owing to the conformation of
the ground), and would by its length and its fine buildings
form a conspicuous band which might well be compared in
ornate rhetoric to a circlet of jewels round the neck of the
statue.
The comparison of Smyrna to a statue appears in the
address of Apollonius, and it is evident either that the
comparison passed through his influence into Smyrnaean
usage and became a current expression, or that the bio-
grapher of Apollonius deliberately attributed to the older
orator a simile which was commonly used in Smyrna (for
Aristides, in all his ornate descriptions of Smyrna, catches
up and elaborates the expressions familiar among the
citizens). The latter supposition is more probable : the
biographer's custom was to select prominent and recog-
nised characteristics of a great city like Smyrna, and show
that they were all due to wise counsel given by the divinely
inspired Apollonius,
Smyrna : the City of Life 261
Thus Apollonius is described as recommending to the
citizens a certain strenuous activity of spirit as the true
path to honour and success for their city: "competitive
unanimity " is his phrase. Aristides mentions as character-
istic of Smyrna " the grace which extends over every part
hke a rainbow, and strains the city like a lyre into tenseness
harmonious with itself and with its beautiful surroundings,
and the brightness which pervades every part and reaches
up to heaven, like the glitter of the bronze armour in
Homer "J In these words Aristides is playing on a
common idea in Greek philosophy, which is applied by
Apollonius to Smyrna. The application is distinctly an
older idea taken up by Aristides ; and the probability is
that this again was the recognised character of Smyrna,
which Philostratus in his usual way derives from the wise
counsel given by his hero.
The prevalent wind, now called Imbat, i.e. Landward,
sets up the long gulf from the western sea ; and blows with
wonderful regularity through the hot weather, rising almost
every day as the sun grows warm, blowing sometimes with
considerable strength in the early afternoon, and dying
down towards sunset. This westerly breeze, Zephyrus, was
in ancient times, and is still, reckoned by the inhabitants as
one of the great advantages of their city. It breathes a
pleasant coolness through the city in the heat of summer ;
and people luxuriate in its refreshing breath and never
tire of lauding its delightful effect. In ancient times they
boasted in the words of Apollonius (already quoted) that
they possessed the fountains of Zephyr, and could therefore
reckon with certainty on continuous westerly breezes. As
Aristides says, " the winds blow through every part of the
town, and make it fresh like a grove of trees ". The inhabit-
262 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
ants never realised that the Zephyr brings with it some dis-
advantages. It comes laden with moisture, and it prevents
free passage of the drainage from the city to the open gulf.
Accordinjj to Strabo, the one defect in the situation of
Smyrna was that the lowest parts of the city were difficult
to drain. The level has risen in modern times through
the accumulation of soil ; but in ancient times there was
little difference between the level of sea and land until the
rise of the hills was reached. The difficulty of drainage,
however, was not due solely to the lowness of the level.
It was aggravated by the winds. The prevalent wind
blowing eastwards up the gulf heaps up the water on the
shore, and prevents the discharge from finding its way out
to sea. Hence in modern time there is often a malodour
on the quay when the west wind is blowing fresh.
But the people of Smyrna did not mention this or any
other defect of their city in talking with others. Municipal
rivalry and local pride were keen and strong in ancient
times. The narrower Greek conception of patriotism which
restricted it to the limits of the city made those feelings far
more powerful in ancient times ; and Rome tried in vain to
put Imperial in the place of local patriotism : she could
plant the seeds of a wider feeling and raise it to a certain
height, but the growth was not so strong and deep-rooted
as the municipal pride.
Smyrna boasted that it was the city of Homer, who had
been born and brought up beside the sacred river Meles.
Homer is one of the most frequent types on coins of the
city ; and there was a temple called Homereion in the city.
The same name was applied to a small bronze coin, which
showed the poet sitting, holding a volumen on his knees,
and supporting his chin on his right hand.
Smyrna : the City of Life 263
According to the allusions of Aristides, the Meles was a
stream close to the city, between it and the open plain,
having an extremely short course, so that its mouth was
close to its source ; it flowed with an equable stream, un-
varying in summer and winter ; its channel was more or less
artificial ; and its water was not cold in winter (when
Aristides bathed in it by order of the god Asklepios, and
found it pleasantly warm). These characteristics suit only
the splendid fountains of Diana's Bath, Khalka-Bunar, on
the east outskirts of the modern city, and the stream that
FiQ. 20. — The River-god Meles.
flows thence to the sea with an even current and volume.
The source is at so low a level that an artificial channel has
always been needed to carry off the water. In modern
time the locality has been entirely altered ; the water is
dammed up to supply part of the city; the surplus runs
off through a straight cutting to the sea, and all the
picturesqueness of the scene has been lost with the dis-
appearance of the trees and the natural surroundings.
This identification is confirmed by the representation of
the god Meles, given on a coin of Smyrna (Fig. 20). He
264 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
appears in the ordinary form, which Greek art appropri-
ated to the idea of a river-god, except that he has not a
cornucopia resting on his bent left arm. The cornucopia
symbolised the fertilising power of the river, which supplies
the water that the dry soil of Asia everywhere needs : the
river turns an arid desert into a garden. But the Meles,
flowing down a little way from the source to the sea, has no
opportunity for diffusing fertility, and the cornucopia would
be unsuitable to it. It was a stream to give pleasure and
health by its fountains, and was worshipped as a healing
power ; but its water rises at so low a level that it was not
used by the agriculturist.
The patron-goddess of Smyrna was a local variety of
Cybele, known as the Sipylene Mother. Like the Artemis
of Ephesus (p. 217), her oldest home was in the mountains
on the north of the valley, famous in myth and history as
Sipylos, where Niobe dwelt and Tantalus reigned ; and she
came down to the plain with her worshippers, and took up
her abode " Before-the-City ". She became a more moral-
ised conception in the Ionian Greek city ; and Nemesis was
the aspect which she bore to the Greek mind.^ In Smyrna
alone, of all the Greek cities. Nemesis was regarded not as
a single figure, but as a pair. The twin figures Nemesis
often appear as a type on coins of the city : they stand as a
rule on the ground, one holding a bridle, the other a cubit-
rule with a wheel at her feet, but in the coin represented in
Fig. 2 1 the wheel becomes a chariot drawn by griffins, on
which the twin goddesses are borne.
Aristides describes the plain of Smyrna as won from the
sea, but not in the same way as some plains {e.g., those of
Ephesus and Miletus) were won, viz.., by silting up. Prob-
ably geologists would confirm his statement that the sea
Smyrna : the City of Life
265
once extended much farther to the East. But when he
wrote the change had not taken place in recent time ; and
Httle change has taken place between the first century and
the twentieth. But in two respects there has been change.
The coast in front of the city has advanced, the city has
encroached a good deal on the sea, and the inner harbour
has been entirely filled up. But in the south-eastern corner
of the gulf, near the mouth of the Meles, the sea has en-
croached on the land. The steady action of the west wind
through many months of every year drives the sea on that
Fig. 21. — ^The twin goddesses Nemesis of Smyrna.
corner and washes away the coast slowly but steadily. But
the rivulets which flow into the eastern end of the gulf are
all mountain streamlets, which carry little silt, but wash
down gravel and pebbles into the plain, and are dry or
almost dry in the hot seasoa The Meles alone flows with
a full and unvarying current, but its course is very short.
Under the Roman government Smyrna enjoyed the
eventless existence of a city which suffered few disasters
and had an almost unbroken career of prosperity. From
the sixth century onwards it was the only important harbour
266 XIX. Smyrna: the City of Life
for inland caravan trade on the west coast of Asia Minor ;
and its importance in comparison with other cities of the
coast necessarily increased as time passed. In the cen.
turies that followed the lot of every city in Asia Minor was
an unhappy one ; and Smyrna suffered with the rest. But
it was the last to suffer from the eastern raids ; and it was
generally the ally of western powers in that time, as once
it had been the ally of Rome. The circumstances of sea
and land gave it lasting vitality. Frequent earthquakes
have devastated it, but only seemed to give it the oppor-
Fio. 22. — The Alliance of Smyrna and Thyatira.
tunity of restoring itself more beautifully than before. No
conquest and no disaster could permanently injure it. It
occupied the one indispensable situation ; it was the door-
keeper of a world. Plate V.
The " alliances " of Smyrna were very numerous ; and she
was the only city which had formed that kind of engage-
ment for mutual recognition of religious rites and privileges
with all the rest of the Seven Cities. As a specimen of
these, Fig. 22 shows an "alliance" with Thyatira. The
Amazon Smyrna, the mythical foundress of the ancient
iEolic city, armed with the Amazons' weapon, the double-
Smyrna : the City of Life 267
axe, wearing the short tunic and high boots of the huntress
and warrior, holds out her right hand to greet the peaceful
figure of Thyatira, who is dressed in the long tunic and
mantle (peplos) of a Greek lady, and rests her raised left
hand on a sceptre. Both wear the mural crown, which
indicated the genius of a city. Behind the foot of Smyrna
appears the prow of a ship.
Its position saved it from conquest till all other cities of
the land had long been under Turkish rule ; and its com-
mercial relations with the west made it the great stronghold
of the European spirit in Asia Minor. The Knights of St.
John held it during the fourteenth century. Even after
Pagos was captured by the Turks, the castle on the inner
harbour was a Christian stronghold till Tamerlane at last
took it in 1402. Since then Smyrna has been a Turkish
city; but the Christian element has always been strong
and at the present time outnumbers the Mohammedan in
the proportion of three to one ; and the city is called by
the Turks Infidel Smyrna, Giaour Ismir.
In the Byzantine ecclesiastical order, Smyrna was at an
early time separated from the rest of Asia, and made in-
dependent of Ephesus (autokephalos). In the new order
which takes its name from Leo VI. it appears as a metro-
polis with six subject bishoprics on the shores of the gulf
or in the lower Hermus Valley,
CHAPTER XX.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA.
These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and lived :
I know thy tnbiclation^ and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a
synagogue of Satan. Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer :
behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be
tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee the crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
The letter to the Smyrnaeans forms in many ways a marked
contrast to the Ephesian letter; it is constructed exactly
on the same plan, but the topics are of a very different
kind. Of all the seven letters this is expressed in the most
continuous and unbroken tone of laudation. It is instinct
with life and joy. The writer is in thorough sympathy
with the Church which he is addressing ; he does not feel
towards it merely that rather cold admiration which he
expresses for the noble history of the Ephesian Church, a
history which, alas ! belonged only to the past : he is filled
with warm affection. The joy that brightens the letter is
caused not by ease and comfort and pleasures, but by the
triumph over hardship and persecution, by superiority to
circumstances ; and the life that invigorates and warms it
is that strong vitality which overcomes death and rises
victorious from apparent dissolution.
Another marked difference between the two letters it
(268)
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna 269
this. While the Ephesian letter appeals throughout to the
past history of the Church in Ephesus, and attempts to
reuse a fresh enthusiasm among the congregation by the
memory of their previous glory as Christians, the Smyr-
naean letter is to a remarkable degree penetrated with local
feeling and urban patriotism, which must be pointed out
in the details, one by one.
The Smyrnaean Church is addressed by " the first and
the last, which was dead and lived ".
The meaning of this opening address is obscured by the
unfortunate mistranslation, which mars both the Authorised
and the Revised Versions, " was dead and lived again ".
The insertion of this word again is unjustified and unjusti-
fiable : there is nothing in the Greek corresponding to it,
and the quotations from Matthew ix. 18, John v. 25, Ezekiel
xxxvii. 3 (which Alford gives in illustration) do not con-
stitute sufficient defence. The analogy of Rev. xiii. 2 ff.
corroborates the plain sense of this letter. The idea is,
not that life begins a second time after a period of death,
but that life persists in and through death. The Divine
Sender of the letter to Smyrna " was dead and lived" and
so likewise Smyrna itself "was dead and lived". If any-
thing should be inserted in the translation to make the
meaning quite clear, the word needed is yet^ " which was
dead and yet lived ".
Again, the phrase '•'■was dead" also is not an exact
equivalent of the Greek words {iyevero veKpo^i) : it would
be nearer the true force of the Greek to render *' became
dead " or " became a corpse ".
All Smyrnaean readers would at once appreciate the
striking analogy to the early history of their own city
which lies in that form of address. Strabo, as usual, fur-
270 XX. The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
nishes th" best commentary. He relates that the Lydiana
destro}'2d the ancient city of Smyrna, and that for four
hundred years ^ there was no "city," but merely a state
composed of villages scattered over the plain and the hill-
sides around. Like Him who addresses it, Smyrna literally
^^ became dead and yet lived". A practical corroboration
of these last words is found in an inscription belonging to
the fourth century B.C.,^ which mentions Smyrna as existing
during the period when, as Strabo says, it had been de-
stroyed and had not been refounded. During those four
centuries Smyrna had ceased to exist as a Greek city, but
it lived on as a village state after the Anatolian system :
then the new period began, and it was restored as an
autonomous, self-governing Greek city, electing its own
magistrates and administering its own affairs according to
the laws which it made for itself
In a sense both Smyrna and Ephesus had changed their
character and situation in ancient time ; but the salient fact
in the one case was simple change of the city's position, in
the other apparent destruction and death under which lay
hidden a real continuance of life. Strabo emphatically
says that Smyrna was obliterated from the roll of cities
for four centuries ; but other authorities speak of Smyrna as
a State existing during that period of annihilation. The
words of the ancients literally are that Smyrna was dead
and yet lived. The two letters are adapted to the his-
torical facts with delicate discrimination ; change is the
word in the first letter, life under and amid death is the
expression in the second.
The idea of life is, of course, to be understood in its
fullest sense when applied to a Christian congregation.
It implies the energetic discharge of all the duties and
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna 271
functions of a Church. The contrast between apparent
destruction and real vitah'ty is expressed in several forms
through this letter. The Church seemed poor, but was
rich. It suffered apparent tribulation, but was really tri-
umphant and crowned with the crown of life. Its enemies
on the other hand were pretenders ; they boasted that they
were the true Jews, but they were not ; they claimed to be
the people of God, but they were only a synagogue of
Satan.
After the introductory address, the letter begins with the
usual statement : the writer has full knowledge of the past
history of the Smyrnaean Church. The history of the
Church had been a course of suffering, and not, as the
Ephesian history had been, of achievement and distinction.
The Smyrnaean Church had had a more trying and diffi-
cult career than any other of the Asian Churches. It had
been exposed to constant persecution. It was poor in all
that is ordinarily reckoned as wealth ; but it was rich in
the estimation of those who can judge of the realities of
life. There is here the same contrast between appearance
and reality as in the opening address : apparent poverty
and real wealth, apparent death and real life.
The humble condition and the sufferings of the Smyr-
naean Church are in this letter pointedly connected with
the action of the Jews, and especially with the calumnies
which they had circulated in the city and among the magis-
trates and the Roman officials. The precise facts cannot
be discovered, but the general situation is unmistakable;
the Smyrnaean Jews were for some reason more strongly
and bitterly hostile to the Christians than the Jews of Asia
generally. But the Asian Jews are little more than a
name to us. From general considerations we can form
272 XX. The Letter to the Chtirch in Smyrna
some opinion about their position in the cities, as is shown
in chapter xii. ; but in respect of details we know nothing.
Accordingly we cannot even speculate as to the reason
for the exceptionally strong anti-Christian feeling among
the Smyrnaean Jews. We must simply accept the fact ;
but we may certainly conclude from it that the national
feeling among them was unusually strong.
In an inscription of the second century ^ " the quondam
Jews" are mentioned as contributing 10,000 denarii to
some public purpose connected with the embellishment of
the city. Bockh understood this enigmatic phrase to mean
persons who had forsworn their faith and placed themselves
on the same level as the ordinary pagan Smyrnaeans ; but
this is certainly wrong. Mommsen's view must, so far as
we can judge, be accepted, that " the quondam Jews " were
simply the body of the Jews of Smyrna, called " quondam "
because they were no longer recognised as a separate
nation by the Roman law (as they had been before A.D.
70). The reference proves that they maintained in practice
so late as 130-37 their separate standing in the city as a
distinct people, apart from the rest of the citizens, although
legally they were no longer anything but one section of
the general population. Many Jews possessed the rights
of citizenship in some at least of the Ionian cities, such as
Smyrna.* The quondam Jews who made that contribution
to embellish Smyrna were probably for the most part citi-
zens.
We may also probably infer from the strong hatred felt
by the Jews, that at first many of the Christians of Smyrna
had been converted from Judaism. It was the Jewish
Christians, and not the pagan converts, whom the national
Jews hated so violently. Except in so far as the converts
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna 273
had been proselytes of the synagogue, the Jews were not
likely to care very much whether Pagans were converted to
Christianity : their violent hatred was roused by the re-
negade Jews (as they thought) like St. Paul, who tried to
place the unclean Pagans on a level with themselves.
The action of the Jews in the martyrdom of Polycarp
must be regarded (as a succession of writers have re-
marked) as corroborating the evidence of this letter. In
that case the eagerness of the Jews to expedite the execu-
tion of the Christian leader actually overpowered their
objection to profane the Sabbath day, and they came into
the gay assemblage in the Stadium, bringing faggots to
make the fire in which Polycarp should be consumed. It
must, however, be observed that they are not said to have
been present at the sports in the Stadium. The games
were over, as usual, at about the fifth hour, 11 A.M. There-
after the rather irregular trial of Polycarp was held ; and
about 2 P.M. the execution took place, and the most bitter
opponents of the Christians had ample time to hear the
news, assemble to hear the sentence, and to help in carry-
ing it into effect. Undoubtedly, many who would abhor to
appear as spectators of the games on a Sabbath would feel
justified in putting to death an enemy of their faith on that
day.^
Severe trials still awaited the Church in Smyrna : " The
devil is about to cast some of you into prison ". . . . The
expression must be understood as symbolical ; and it would
not be permissible to take "prison" as implying that im-
prisonment was the severest punishment which had as yet
been, or was likely to be, inflicted on Christians. The in-
ference has even been drawn from this passage that death
was still hardly known as a penalty for the crime of Christi-
274 ^X- ^^^ Letter to the Church in Smyrna
anity, and was not even thought of as a possibility in the
immediate future. In fact, such a sense for the term " prison "
would be an anachronism, introducing a purely modern idea.
Imprisonment was not recognised by the law as a punish-
ment for crime in the Greek or the Roman procedure. The
State would not burden itself with the custody of criminals,
except as a preliminary stage to their trial, or in the interval
between trial and execution. Fine, exile, and death con-
stituted the usual range of penalties ; and in many cases,
where a crime would in modern times be punished by
imprisonment, it was visited with death in Roman law.
The "prison" into which the devil would cast some of
the Smyrnaean Christians must be understood as a brief
epitome of all the sufferings that lay before them ; the first
act, viz.^ their apprehension and imprisonment, is to be
taken as implying all the usual course of trial and punish-
ment through which passed the martyrs described in the
later parts of the book. Prison was thought of by the
writer of the letter as the prelude to execution, and was
understood in that sense by his readers.
That this is so is proved by the promise that follows,
" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown
of life " : Endure all that falls to the lot of the true and
steadfast Christians, beginning with arrest and imprison-
ment, ending with execution : that death will not be the
end, but only the entrance to the true life, the birthday of
martyrdom. The martyr "was dead and lived".
The importance of this idea in the letter is proved by the
conclusion, where it recurs in a slightly varied form : " he
that overcometh snail not be hurt of the second death ".
It is this triumph over death that constitutes the guiding
thought of the whole letter, just as change was the guiding
The Letter to the Church in Sinyrna 275
thought of the Ephesian letter. He that persists to the
end, he that is steadfast and overcomes, shall triumph over
death : apparent death affects him ; but not the complete
and permanent death. Here, again, the final promise is
seen to be peculiarly appropriate to the character and
needs of the persons addressed.
The mention of the crown would carry a special meaning
to the Smyrnaean readers, and would rouse in their hearts
many old associations. The " crown of Smyrna " had been
before their eyes and minds from childhood (as was shown
in chapter xix.). The promise now is that a new crown
shall be given to Smyrna. She shall wear no longer a
mere crown of buildings and towers, nor even the crown
of good citizens which Apollonius advised her to put on,
but a crown of life. The earthly Smyrna wore a mural
crown like that of her patron goddess : the true Smyrna
shall v,;ear a crown suited for the servants of the one living
God.
Another expression which must be taken in a figurative
or symbolic sense is, " thou shalt Jiave tribulation ten days ".
The " ten days " means simply a period which can be
measured, z>., which comes to an end. The persecution
will rage for a time, but it will not be permanent. The
Church will live through it and survive it, and has there-
fore no reason to be afraid of it.
The expression "■' be faithful" again, would inevitably re-
mind Smyrnaean readers of the history of their city, which
had been the faithful friend and ally of Rome for centuries.
It cannot be a mere accident that the only one of the Seven
Churches, with which the epithet faithful is associated in
the letters, is the Church of that city which had established
its historic claim to the epithet in three centuries of loyalty,
276 XX. The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
the city which had been faithful to Rome in danger and
difficulty, the city whose citizens had stripped off their own
garments to send to the Roman soldiers when suffering from
cold and the hardships of a winter campaign. The honour
in which Smyrna was always held by the Romans was pro-
claimed to be a return pro singulari fide (Livy, xxxviii., 39) ;
to Cicero it was " the most faithful of our alLes " ; and its
services were rewarded in A.D. 26 by the permission granted
to it, in preference even to Ephesus and Sardis, to dedicate
the second Asian temple to the reigning Emperor Tiberius
and his family.
The same reflection occurs here as in the case of Ephesus.
Some may think that such an explanation of the reason
why this special form of words in the exordium of this letter
was chosen, and why the epithet " faithful " is applied to the
Church, is fanciful and even unworthy. It is evident, how-
ever, that the study which is here presented has been made
from a different point of view. It is not in accordance with
right method to form a priori theories of what is right or
wrong, dignified or undignified, possible or impossible, in the
interpretation of St. John's words. The only true method is
to take the words, and ask what they mean, and what must
the readers, for whom they were in the first place written,
have understood from them. Now considering how exactly
those words, " was dead and lived" applied to ancient
Smyrna, it seems certain that the reference must inevit-
ably have been appreciated by the Smyrnaeans ; and if
so, it cannot have been an accidental coincidence. The
writer deliberately chose those words to appeal to local
sentiment and patriotism. The same remark applies to
his choice of ^'faithful " as the appropriate epithet for the
Smyrnaean Church. Not merely had the Church been
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna 277
faithful ; the whole city regarded faithfulness as the chief
glory of Smyrna ; and the topic must have been familiar to
all inhabitants, and a commonplace in patriotic speeches.
It is evident that the writer of the Seven Letters did not
discourage such feelings of attachment to one's native city,
but encouraged local patriotism and used it as a basis on
which to build up a strenuous Christian life. The practical
effect of such teaching as this is that a Christian could be
a patriot, proud of and interested in the glory and the
history of his own city.
This gives a different impression of the writer's character
from what might be gathered from later parts of the Apoca-
lypse ; but it is not good method to take parts of a book and
determine the author's character from them alone. Rather,
the Seven Letters are a truer index to the writer's character
than any other part of the Apocalypse, because in these
letters he is in closer contact with reality than in any other
part of the book.
Accordingly, we must accept the plain evidence of this
letter, and infer (as in the Ephesian letter already) that to
the writer of the letter the life of the Church in Smyrna
was not disconnected from the life of the city ; and this
must be regarded as a general principle to be applied in
other cases. The Church was to him the heart and soul of
the city, and its members were the true citizens. Just as
the so-called Jews in Smyrna were not the true Jews, but
a mere synagogue of Satan, so the Pagans were not the
true citizens, but mere servants of the devil. The true
Jews and the true citizens were the Christians alone. To
them belonged the heritage of the city's past history: its
faithfulness, its persistence, its unconquerable and indestruct-
ible vitality, all were theirs. To them also belonged the
278 XX. The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
whole ancient heritage of the Jews, the promises and the
favour of God.
In the letter to Smyrna then we see an influence of which
no trace was visible in the Ephesian letter. The stock
topics of patriotic orators, the glories of the city, are plainly
observable in the letter ; and the writer had certainly at
some time mixed in the city life, and become familiar with
current talk and the commonplaces of Smyrnaean municipal
patriotism. Patriotism still was almost entirely municipal,
though the Roman Empire was gradually implanting in the
minds of ordinary men a wider ideal, extending to a race
and an empire, and not confined to a mere city. Greece
had vainly tried to make the Hellenic idea strong in the
common mind ; philosophers had freed themselves from
the narrowness of municipal patriotism ; but it was left to
Rome to make the wider idea effective among men.
In the Ephesian letter, on the other hand, it was the
eternal features and the natural surroundings of the city
that the writer referred to. The Smyrnaean letter is not
without similar reference. The writer did not confine his
attention to those ephemeral characteristics which have
just been mentioned, or (to speak more accurately) he re-
garded those characteristics as merely the effect produced
by eternal causes. He had thought himself into harmony
with the natural influences which had made Smyrna what
it was, and which would continue to mould its history ;
and from this lofty standpoint he could look forward into
the future, and foretell what must happen to Smyrna and
to the Church (which to him was the one reality in Smyrna).
He foresaw permanence, stability, reality surpassing the
outward appearance, life maintaining itself strong and
unmoved amid trial and apparent death. In Ephesus he
The Letter to the Chuixh in Smyrna 279
saw the one great characteristic, the changing, evanescent,
uncertain relations of sea and land and river; and inter-
preted with prophetic instinct the inevitable future. In
Smyrna he saw nothing of that kind. The city must live,
and the Church must live in it. Sea and plain and hills
were here unchanging in their combined effect, making
the seat of a great city. The city must endure much,
but only for a definite, limited period ; as a city it would
suffer from invaders, who would surely try to capture it ;
and the Church not only would suffer along with the city,
but would also suffer from the busy trading community,
in which the element hostile to God would always be
strong.
And history has justified the prophetic vision of the
writer. Smyrna, the recipient of the most laudatory of ah
the Seven Letters, is the greatest of all the cities of Anatolia.
At the head of its gulf, which stretches far up into the
land, it is at present the one important seaport, and will
remain always the greatest seaport, of the whole country.
But the same situation which gives it eternal importance,
has caused it to suffer much tribulation. It has been the
crown of victory for many victors. It has tempted the
cupidity of every invader, and has endured the greed and
cruelty of many conquerors ; but it has arisen, brilliant
and strong, from every disaster. No city of the East
Mediterranean lands gives the same impression of bright-
ness and life, as one looks at it from the water, and beholds
it spread out on the gently sloping ground between the
sea and the hill, and clothing the sides of the graceful
hill, which was crowned with the walls and towers of the
mediaeval castle, until they were pulled down a few years
ago. The difference in the beauty of the city caused thereby
28o XX. The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
shows how much of the total effect was due to that " crown
of Smyrna" (see pp. 256-9).
That hill seems at the first view to be only a rounded
hillock of 450 feet in elevation. But, when you examine
it more closely, you find that it is not merely an isolated
conical hill, as it seems from the sea to be. It is really
only a part of the vast plateau that lies behind it, and
pushes it forward, like a fist, towards the sea. It is far
stronger than at first it appeared, for it is really a corner
of the main mass of the Asiatic continent, and is supported
from behind by its immeasurable strength. Strength sur-
passing appearance, brightness, life : those are the char-
acteristics of the letter and of the city.
In this letter no one can fail to recognise the tone of
affection and entire approval. Whereas the writer urged
the people of Ephesus to be as they once were, he counsels
the Smyrnaeans to continue as they are now. Ephesus
has to recover what it has lost, but Smyrna has lost nothing.
The persecution and poverty which had been the lot of
its Church from the beginning, and which would still
continue for a period, kept it pure. There was nothing
in it to tempt the unworthy or the half-hearted ; whereas
the dignity and high standing of the Ephesian Church had
inevitably attracted many not entirely worthy members.
The writer looks confidently forward to the continuance of
the same steadfastness in Smyrna. He does not even hint
at the possibility of partial failure ; he does not say, " If
thcu be faithful, I will give thee the crown " ; he merely
exhorts them to be faithful as they have been.
CHAPTER XXI.
PERGAMUM: THE ROYAL CITY: THE CITY OF AUTHORITY.*
Pergamum was, undoubtedly, an ancient place, whose
foundation reaches back into the beginnings of town life in
Asia. The situation is marked out by nature for a great
fortified town, but is too large for a mere village. If we
could fix the date of its foundation, we should know also
the period when society has become so far developed and
organised as to seek for defence against foreign invasion,
and for offensive power, by combination on a great scale
and the formation of a large centre of population. Beyond
all other sites in Asia Minor it gives the traveller the im-
pression of a royal city, the home of authority : the rocky
hill on which it stands is so huge, and dominates the
broad plain of the Caicus so proudly and boldly. The
modern town is below the hill, where the earliest village
was.
It is diflficult to analyse such impressions, and to define
the various causes whose combination produces them ; but
the relation of the vast hill to the great plain is certainly
the chief cause. It would be impossible for any stronghold,
however large and bold, to produce such an impression, if
it stood in a small valley like those of Ephesus and Smyrna,
or if the valley and the city were dominated by the still
greater mass of the enclosing mountains. The rock rules
over and as it were plants its foot upon a great valley ; and
(281)
282 XXI. Pergamum : the Royal City:
its summit looks over the southern mountains which bound
the valley, until the distant lofty peaks south of the Gulf of
Smyrna, and especially the beautiful twin peaks now called
the Two Brothers, close in the outlook. Far beneath lies
the sea, quite fifteen miles away, and beyond it the foreign
soil of Lesbos : the view of other lands, the presence of
hostile powers, the need of constant care and watchfulness,
all the duties of kingship are forced on the attention of
him who sits enthroned on that huge rock. There is here
nothing to suggest evanescence, mutability, and uncertainty,
as at Sardis or Ephesus ; the inevitable impression is of
permanence, strength, sure authority and great size. Some-
thing of the personal and subjective element must be mixed
up with such impressions ; but in none of the Seven Cities
does the impression seem more universal and unavoidable
than in Pergamum. Plate VI.
The history and the coinage of Pergamum can be traced
back into the fifth century ; but its superiority and headship
in Asia began in 282, when Philetaerus threw off allegiance
to King Lysimachus and founded the kingdom of Pergamum,
which was transmitted through a succession of kings, named
Eumenes or Attalus, until 133. During those 151 years
Pergamum was the capital of a realm varying in size from
the first kingdom, simply the Caicus Valley (and hardly all
of it), to the range of territories summed up in the vague
expression " all the land on this side of Taurus ". For the
first few years the Seleucid dynasty supported Philetaerus
in opposition to Lysimachus ; but soon the rivalry of
Seleucid and Pergamenian kings became the governing
political fact. The former steadily lost ground until about
222 B.C., when Antiochus the Great restored the power
of his dynasty, reduced Attalus I. to the original bounds
The City of Authority 283
of Pergamenian authority, and threatened even the exist-
ence of his kingdom. Roman aid expelled Antiochus in
190, and enlarged the Pergamenian kingdom to its widest
extent.
In 133 Attalus III. bequeathed the whole kingdom to
the Romans, who formed it into the Province of Asia.
Pergamum was the official capital of the Province for two
centuries and a half: so that its history as the seat of
supreme authority over a large country lasts about four
centuries, and had not yet come to an end when the Seven
Letters were written. The impression which the natural
features of its position convey was entirely confirmed to
the writer of the letters by its history. It was to him the
seat where the power of this world, the enemy of the Church
and its Author, exercised authority. The authority was
exercised in two ways — the two horns of the monster, as
we have seen in chapter ix. — civil administration through
the Proconsul, and the State religion directed by the
Commune of Asia.
The first, and for a considerable time the only. Provincial
temple of the Imperial cult in Asia was built at Pergamum
in honour of Rome and Augustus (29 B.C. probably), A
second temple was built there in honour of Trajan, and
a third in honour of Severus. Thus Pergamum was the
first city to have the distinction of Temple-Warden both
once and twice in the State religion ; and even its third
Wardenship was also a few years earlier than that of
Ephesus. The Augustan Temple (Fig. 7, p. 124) is often
represented on its coins and on those struck by the Com-
mune. As the oldest temple of the Asian cult it is far
more frequently mentioned and figured than any other
Asian temple ; it appears on coins of many Emperors
284 XXI. Pergamum : the Royal City:
down to the time of Trajan, and is generally represented
open, to show the Emperor crowned by the Province.^
The four patron deities of Pergamum are mentioned in
an oracle, advising the people to seek safety from a pestilence
through the aid of Zeus, Athena, Dionysos, and Asklepios.
These represent, doubtless, four different elements in the
Pergamenian population. Zeus the Saviour and Athena
the Victory-Bearing had given the State its glorious vic-
tories over foreign enemies, and especially the Gauls ; and
the greatest efforts of Pergamenian art were directed to
glorify them as representatives of the Hellenic spirit tri-
umphing over barbarism. The great Altar with its long
zone of stately reliefs, showing the gods of Hellas destroying
the barbarian giants, was dedicated to Zeus Soter.
While the first two of those gods represent the Greek
spirit and influence, the last two were more in accordance
with the Anatolian spirit, and their worship bulked far more
largely in the religious life of the city. Both of them were
near the animal type, and if we could penetrate beneath
the outward appearance imparted to them in art by the
Greek anthropomorphic spirit, and reach down to the actual
ritual of their Pergamenian cult, we should indubitably find
that they were worshipped to a great degree as animal-gods,
the God-Serpent and the God-Bull.^ Where the Perga-
menian kings were insisting on their Hellenic character or
blazoning in art their victory over barbaric enemies, they
introduced Zeus and Athena, but when they were engaged
in the practical government of their mixed people, mainly
Anatolian, though mixed with Greek, they made most use
of Asklepios and Dionysos.
Dionysos the Leader {Kathegemon) was the god of the
royal family ; and the kings claimed to be descended from
The City of Authority
285
him, and to be in succession his embodiment and envisage-
ment on earth, just as the Seleucid sovereigns of Syria were
the incarnation of Apollo.* This cult owed its importance
in Pergamum to the kings ; and its diffusion through Asia
must be attributed to them ; but the worship, having once
been established, persisted through the Imperial period, for
religious institutions were rarely lost so long as paganism
lasted. The worship was practised in Imperial times by a
religious society, bearing the name Ox-herds (Boukoloi), at
the head of which was the Archi-Boukolos ; it was accom-
FiQ. 23. — Caracalla adoring the God-Serpent of Pergamum.
panied by mysterious rites, and the mystic name of the god
seems to have been the Bull, a^io^ ravpo^.
The anthropomorphic spirit of Greek religion retained
very few traces of the bull character in the Hellenic concep-
tion of Dionysos ; but Asklepios was more closely associated
with the serpent. The Hellenic religious spirit represented
the god as a dignified human figure, very similar in type to
Zeus, supporting his right hand on a staff round which a
serpent is twined. His serpent nature clings to him, though
286 XXI. Pergamum : the Royal City:
only as an attribute and adjunct, in the fully Hellenised
form. In the Anatolian ritual the god was the Asklepian
serpent, rather than the human Asklepios. Thus in Fig. 23
the Emperor Caracalla, during his visit to Pergamum, is
represented as adoring the Pergamenian deity, a serpent
wreathed round the sacred tree. Between the God-Serpent
and the God-Kmperor stands the little figure of Telesphorus,
the Consummator, a peculiarly Pergamenian conception
closely connected with Asklepios.
Asklepios the Saviour was introduced from Epidauros in
a comparatively recent period, perhaps the fifth century.
He appears on coins from the middle of the second century
B.C. and became more and more the representative god of
Pergamum. On alliance coins he regularly stands for his
city, as in Fig. 10, p. 174.
As Asklepios was imported to Pergamum from Epidaurus
in Argolis, it may be asked why his character in ritual was
so strongly Anatolian and so little Hellenic. The reason is
that he belonged to the old Pelasgian stratum in religion,
which persisted most strcjngly in such remote and rural
parts of the Peloponnesus ; and he had participated little
in the progressive Hellenisation of the old Greek gods ;
now the Pelasgian religion was closely kindred in character
to the Anatolian.^
On the royal coinage Athena and other Hellenic gods
are almost the only divine types ; but on the cistophori,
which were intended to be the common coinage in circula-
tion through the whole Pergamenian kingdom after 200 B.C.,
neither kings nor specifically Hellenic gods appear, but only
symbols taken from the cults of Dionysos and Asklepios.
On the obverse is the cista viystica of Dionysos (Fig. 24)
within a wreath of his sacred plant the ivy : the lid of the
The City of Authority
287
box is pushed open by a serpent which hangs out with
half its length. The relation of the God-Bull to the God-
Serpent in the Anatolian ritual is well known: "the bull
is father of the serpent, and the serpent of the bull " :
such was a formula of the Phrygian Mysteries.*^ On the
reverse are two Asklepian serpents with their lower parts
intertwined and heads erect : between them is a bowcase
containing a strung bow.
The monogram of the first three letters of the name
Pergamum is the only indication on these coins of Perga-
FiQ. 24. — Obverse of Cistophorus with Serpent and mystic box of Dionysos.
menian origin and domination. It was clearly the intention
of the kings in this coinage to avoid all appearance of
domination over Asia, and to represent the unity of their
realm as a voluntary association in the common religion
of the two deities whose ritual is symbolised in barbaric
Anatolian forms on the cistophori, without the slightest
admixture of Greek anthropomorphism, and whose worship
we have already traced in several cities of the Pergamenian
realm. The cistophori were struck at first in Pergamum,
but soon in most of the great cities of the Pergamenian
288 XXI. Pergamum: the Royal City:
realm. Only those struck in Pergamum bore the Perga-
menian monogram. The others bore the name or symbols
of their own place of coinage. These coins are a true
historical monument. They express a phase of administra-
tion, the Pergamenian ideal of constructive statesmanship,
which is attested by no historian and hardly by any other
monument, pp. 117, 125, 230.
The cistophori show clearly the point of view from which
the symbolism of the Apocalypse is to be interpreted. They
reveal a strong tendency in the Asian mind to express its
FiQ. 25. — Reverse of Cistophorus, with serpents and bowcase*
ideas and ideals, alike political and religious, through symbols
and types ; and they prove that the converted pagan readers
for whom the Apocalypse was originally written were pre-
disposed through their education and the whole spirit of
contemporary society to regard visual forms, beasts, human
fis[ures, composite monsters, objects of nature, or articles of
human manufacture, when mentioned in a work of this
class, as symbols indicative of religious ideas. This pre-
disposition to look at such things with a view to a meaning
that lay underneath them was not confined to the strictly
The City of Authority 289
Oriental races ; and the symbolism of the Apocalypse ought
not to be regarded as all necessarily Jewish in origin. Much
of it is plainly Jewish ; but, as has been pointed out in
chapters xi. and xii., a strong alloy of Judaism had been
mingled in the composition of society in the Asian cities,
and many Judaic ideas must have become familiar to the
ordinary pagans, numbers of whom had been attracted
within the circle of hearers in the synagogues, while purely
pagan syncretism of Jewish and pagan forms was familiar
in various kinds of ritual or magic.
Except for archaeological and antiquarian details, which
are numerous, little more is known about Pergamum. Its
importance and authority in the Roman administration of
the Province Asia are abundantly proved by the evidence
which has been quoted above ; and yet they are not directly
attested by any ancient authority except the Apocalypse,
and have to a great extent escaped notice. In the latest
study of the Province Asia, a large volume containing an
admirable summary of the chief results of modern investiga-
tion, published in the summer of 1904 by Monsieur V.
Chapot, Pergamum is treated as a place quite secondary
to Ephesus and Smyrna in the Roman administration
while Ephesus is regarded as in every sense the Roman
capital. Consideration of the fact that Pergamum was
honoured with the first, the second, and the third Neokor-
ate before any other city of Asia shows beyond question
its official primacy in the Province. The Imperial religion
"was the keystone of the Imperial policy"; the official
capital of the Province was necessarily the centre of the
Imperial ritual ; and conversely the city where the Imperial
religion had its centre must have been officially regarded
as the capital of the Province.^ In many Provinces there
290 XXI. Perga7num : the Royal City
was only one seat of the Imperial religion ; but in Asia the
spirit of municipal pride and rivalry was so strong that it
would have endangered the hold of the State cultus on the
other great cities, if they had been foiced to look to any
one city as the sole head of the religion. Roman policy
showed its n.->i;al adaptability by turning municipal pride
to its purpose and making it act in an Imperial channel,
so that the object of competition among all the great cities
was to attain higher rank in the State religion.
Pergamum, then, as being first promoted to all three
stages in the Imperial worship must have been the official
capital and titular seat of Roman authority ; but there were
several capitals (metropoleis), three, and seven, and more
than se\en.
The name of the city lives in literary language through
the word " parchment " {Pergamena\ applied to an improved
preparation of hide adapted to purposes of writing, which
had been used in Ionia from a very early period (p. 12).
The Jewish community in Pergamum is mentioned in
Josephus, Ant. Jud.^ xiv., 10, 22.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMUM.
These things saith he that hath the sharp-pointed two-edged sword.
I know where thou dwellest, where Satan's throne is ; and thou holdest
fast my name, and didst not deny my faith, even m the days of Antipas
tny witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan
dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there
some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-
block before the children of Israel, to make them eat things sacrificed to
idols and commit fornication. After that fashion hast thou too some that
hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore; or else I come
upon thee quickly, and I will make war against thein with the sword of
my mouth.
He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.
To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden manna ; and I will
give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no
man knoweth but he that receiveth it.
In this letter, the intimate connection between the Church
and the city, and the appropriateness, in view of the rank
and position of the city, of the opening address to the
Church are even more obvious than in the two previous
letters. " These things saith he that hath the sharp two-edged
sword.'' The writer is uttering the words of Him who wears
the symbol of absolute authority, and is invested with the
power of life and death. This is the aspect in which he
addresses himself to the official capital of the Province, the
seat of authority in the ancient kingdom and in the Roman
administration. To no other of the Seven Cities could this
exordium have been used appropriately. To Pergamum
(291)
292 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
it is entirely suitable. He that hath the absolute and uni-
versal authority speaks to the Church situated in the city
where official authority dwells.
The distinguishing characteristic of this letter is the oft-
recurring reference to the dignity of Pergamum as the seat
of Roman official authority ; and we have to follow out this
reference in one detail after another. The author of the
letter speaks as invested with an authority similar and yet
immeasurably superior to that of the Imperial government.
The sword which he bears is the sharp-pointed, double-
edged, cut-and-thrust sword used in the Roman armies, not
the Oriental scimitar, or the mere cutting sword employed
by many nations, and especially by the Greek soldiers. The
name by which it is here called denoted a barbarian and
non-Greek sword (originally a Thracian term), and therefore
was suitable for the weapon borne by the Romans, who
were a " barbarian " race, in contrast with the Greeks. The
Romans did not themselves refuse the epithet *' barbarian " :
e.g..) the Roman adaptations of Greek plays are said by
the Roman poets even to be " translations in a barbarian
tongue". Hence St. Paul in Rom. i. 14, when he speaks
of himself as indebted both to Greeks and to barbarians,
means practically (though not quite exclusively) Greeks
and Romans,
In Roman estimation the sword was the symbol of the
highest order of official authority, with which the Proconsul
of Asia was invested. The " right of the svjord" Jus gladii,
was roughly equivalent to what we call the power of life
and death (though, of course, the two expressions are not
exactly commensurate); and governors of Provinces were
divided into a higher and a lower class, according as they
were or were not invested with this power. When the
The Letter to the Church in Pej^gamum 293
Divine Author addresses Pergamum in this character, His
intention is patent, and would be caught immediately by-
all Asian readers of the Apocalypse. He wields that power
of life and death, which people imagine to be vested in the
Proconsul of the Province.
The writer knows well the history of the Church in Per-
gamum. Its fortunes had been mainly determined by the
rank and character of the city as the seat of government
and authority ; and He who knows its history expresses the
fulness of His knowledge in the striking words, "/ know
where thou dwellest, where Satan s throne is". In these
remarkable words is compressed a world of meaning.
" Satan " is a term here employed in a figurative sense to
denote the power or influence that withstands the Church
and all who belong to it The usage is similar to that seen
in I Thessalonians ii. 18: it has elsewhere^ been pointed
out that in that passage "Satan" probably implies the
clever device whereby, without any formal decree of ex-
pulsion or banishment (which would have been difficult
to enforce or to make permanent), the Apostle was pre-
vented from returning to Thessalonica. Similarly, in the
present case, "Satan" is the official authority and power
which stands in opposition to the Church.
But the situation has now developed greatly. When St.
Paul was writing that letter to the Thessalonians, the civil
power that hindered him was the authority of the city
magistrates. The Imperial administration had not at that
time declared itself in opposition to the new teaching, and
was in practice so conducted as to give free scope to this or
almost any other philosophic or moral or religious move-
ment. But before the Seven Letters were written, the Im-
perial government had already ranged itself definitely in
294 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
opposition to the Church of Christ. The procedure against
the Christians was fixed and stereotyped. Their loyalty
was now tested by the one criterion recognised alike by
public opinion and by government policy, viz.^ their willing-
ness to perform the ritual of the State religion, and make
offering to the Imperial God, the Divine Emperor. Those
who refused to comply with this requirement were forth-
with condemned to death as traitors and enemies of the
State.
In this State religion of the Empire, the worship of
the Divine Emperors, organised on a regular system in
Asia as in all other Provinces, Satan found his home and
exercised his power in opposition to God and His Church.
Pergamum, as being still the administrative capital of
the Province, was also the chief seat of the State religion.
Here was built the first Asian Temple of the divine Au-
gustus, which for more than forty years was the one centre
of the Imperial religion for the whole Province, A second
Asian Temple had afterwards been built at Smyrna, and a
third at Ephesus ; but they were secondary to the original
Augustan Temple at Pergamum.
In this Pergamenian Temple, then, Satan was enthroned.
The authority over the minds of its Asian subjects, possessed
by the State, and arrayed against the Church, was mainly
concentrated in the Temple. The history of the Church in
Pergamum had been determined by its close proximity to
the seat of State opposition, " where Satan's throne is".
Such, beyond all doubt, was the chief determining fact in
prompting this remarkable expression. But it is probable
that other thoughts in a secondary degree influenced the
language here. The breadth of meaning in these letters is so
great, that one suggestion is rarely sufficient ; the language
The Letter to the Chtirch in Pergamum 295
was prompted by the whole complex situation. In many
cases we cannot hope to do more than describe some one
side of the situation, which happens to be known to us ; but
here we can see that the form of the expression was clearly
determined in some degree by the historical associations
and the natural features of the city. Pergamum had for
centuries been the royal city, first of the Attalid kings, and
afterwards of the viceroy or Proconsul who represented the
Emperor in the Province. History marked it out as the
royal city, and not less clearly has nature done so. No
city of the whole of Asia Minor — so far as I have seen, and
there are few of any importance which I have not seen —
possesses the same imposing and dominating aspect. It is
the one city of the land which forced from me the exclama-
tion " A royal city ! " I came to it after seeing the others,
and that was the impression which it produced. There is
something unique and overpowering in its effect, planted
as it is on its magnificent hill, standing out boldly in the
level plain, and dominating the valley and the mountains
on the south. Other cities of the land have splendid hills
which made them into powerful fortresses in ancient time ;
but in them the hill is as a rule the acropolis, and the city
lies beneath and around or before it. But here the hill was
the city proper, and the great buildings, chiefly Roman,
which lie below the city, were external ornaments, lending
additional beauty and stateliness to it. Plate VII.
In this case, again, the natural features of the city give
a fuller meaning to the words of the letter.
Some confusion is caused by the peculiar relation between
Ephesus and Pergamum. Each of the two was in a sense
the metropolis of Asia. It is impossible, in the dearth of
information, to define the limits of their circles of influence ;
296 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
and ft was, in all probability, hardly possible to do so very
exactly at the time when the Seven Letters were written.
Pergamum was the historical capital, originally the one
metropolis of Asia, and still the official capital. But Perga-
mum was badly situated for commerce and communication ;
it did not lie on any of the great natural lines of trade
between Rome and the East (though it was situated on the
Imperial Post-road to the East, in the form in which that
route was organised by Augustus and lasted throughout the
first century) ; and therefore it could not permanently main-
tain its premier rank in the Province. The sea-ends of the
two great roads across Asia Minor were at Ephesus and
Smyrna ; one or other of those two cities must inevitably
become the capital of the Roman Province ; and the cir-
cumstances of the time were more in favour of Ephesus.
Smyrna, indeed, offered the better harbour, more accessible
for ships, at the head of a gulf extending far up into the
land, bringing sea-borne trade nearer the heart of the
country ; it had permanent vitality as the chief city of
Asia ; and the future was with it But Ephesus com-
manded the most important land route ; and this gave it
a temporary advantage, though the changing nature of its
situation denied it permanent possession of the honour.
The Christian Church and its leaders had from the first
seized on Ephesus as the centre of the Asian congregations,
whether through a certain unerring instinct for the true
value of natural facts, or because they were driven on in
that direction by circumstances — but are not these merely
two different expressions and aspects of one fact ? Perga-
mum, however, and even Smyrna, had also a certain claim
to the primacy of Asia ; and it is interesting to observe
how all those varied claims and characteristics are mirrored
The Letter to the Church in Pergarmmt 297
and expressed in these letters. To the superficial eye Per-
gamum was, apparently, even y&t the capital ; but already
in the time of St. Paul, A.D. 56, the Ephesians had claimed
primacy in Asia for their goddess (Acts xix. 27), and at
a later period the Imperial policy was induced to grant
official Roman recognition and to make the worship of
the goddess part of the State religion of the Province.
Considering the close connection in ancient times between
religion, political organisation, and the sentiment of patriot-
ism, we must conclude that this wider acceptance of
Ephesian religion over the whole of Asia, beginning from
non-official action, and finally made official and Imperial,
marked and implied the rise of Ephesus to the primacy of
the Province ; but, at the time when the Seven Letters
were written, the popular recognition of the goddess in the
Asian cities had not been confirmed by Imperial act.
As being close to the centre of the enemy, Pergamum
had been most exposed to danger from State persecution.
Here, for the first time in the Seven Letters, this topic
comes up. The suffering which had fallen to the lot of
Smyrna proceeded chiefly from fellow-citizens, and, above
all, from the Jews ; but the persecution that fell to the
lot of Pergamum is clearly distinguished from that kind
of suffering. In Pergamum it took the form of suffering
for the Name, when Christians were tried in the proconsular
court, and confronted with the alternative of conforming to
the State religion or receiving immediate sentence of death.
Naturally, that kind of persecution originated from Perga-
mum, and had there its centre ; but many martyrs were
tried and condemned there who were not Pergamenians.
Prisoners were carried from all parts of the Province to
Pergamum for trial and sentence before the authority who
298 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
possessed the right of the sword, jus gladii, the power of
life and death, viz., the Roman Proconsul of Asia.
Two errors must here be guarded against. " Antipas, my
witness, who was killed among you," is the only sufferer
mentioned. But it would be utterly erroneous to infer (as
some have done) that Antipas had been the only Christian
executed as yet in Pergamum or in the Province. His
name is mentioned and preserved only as the first in the
already long series : the subsequent chapters of the Revela-
tion, which tell of the woman drunk with the blood of the
saints, show what were the real facts. That one name
should stand as representative of the whole list is entirely
in the style of the Apocalypse.
In the second place, it would be equally erroneous to
argue that persecution was still only partial and local, not
universal, and that only members of the Church of Perga-
mum had as yet suffered death. It is not even certain that
Antipas was a member of that congregation : the words
are not inconsistent with the possibility that Antipas was
brought up for trial from some other city, and " killed among
the Pergamenians ". A wide-spread persecution had already
occurred, and the processes of law had been fully developed
in it. The Apocalypse places us in view of a procedure de-
veloped far beyond that which Tacitus describes as ruling
in the reign of Nero ; and such a formed and stereotyped
procedure was elaborated only through the practice and pre-
cedents established during later persecution.
The honourable history and the steadfast loyalty of the
Pergamenian Church, however, had been tarnished by the
error of a minority of the congregation, which had been
convinced by the teaching of the Nicolaitans. This school
of thought and conduct played an important part in the
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 299
Church of the first century. Ephesus had tried and rejected
it; the Smyrnaean congregation, despised and ill-treated by
their fellow-citizens, had apparently not been much affected
by it ; in Pergamum a minority of the Church had adopted
its principles ; in Thyatira the majority were attracted by
it, and it there found its chief seat, so far as Asia was
concerned. Probably the controversy with regard to the
Nicolaitan views was fought out and determined in Asia
more decisively than in any other Province, though the
same questions must have presented themselves and de-
manded an answer in every Province and city where the
Graeco-Roman civilisation was established. The character
of this movement, obscure and almost unknown to us,
because the questions which it raised were determined at
so early a date, will be most conveniently treated under
Thyatira ; but it is necessary here to point out that it was
evidently an attempt to effect a reasonable compromise
with the established usages of Graeco-Roman society and
to retain as many as possible of those usages in the Chris-
tian system of life. It affected most of all the cultured
and well-to-do classes in the Church, those who had most
temptation to retain all that they could of the established
social order and customs of the Graeco-Roman world, and
who by their more elaborate education had been trained
to take a somewhat artificial view of life and to reconcile
contradictory principles in practical conduct through subtle
philosophical reasoning.
The historian who looks back over the past will find it
impossible to condemn the Nicolaitan principles in so
strong and even bigoted fashion as St. John condemned
them. But the Apostle, while writing the Seven Letters,
was not concerned to investigate all sides of the case, and
300 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
to estimate with careful precision exactly how much could
be reasonably said on behalf of the Nicolaitans. He saw
that they had gone wrong on the essential and critical
alternative ; and he cared for nothing more. To him, in
the absorbing interest of practical life, no nice weighing of
comparative right was possible ; he divided all Christians
into two categories, those who were right and those who
were wrong. Those who were wrong he hated with his
whole heart and soul ; and he almost loved the Ephesians,
as we have seen, because they also hated the Nicolaitans.
The Nicolaitans were to him almost worse than the open
and declared enemies of Christ on the pagan side ; and he
would probably have entirely denied them the name of
Christians.
But the historian must regard the Nicolaitans with in-
tense interest, and must regret deeply that we know so
little about them, and that only from their enemies. And
yet at the same time he must feel that nothing could have
saved the infant Church from melting away into one of
those vague and ineffective schools of philosophic ethics
except the stern and strict rule that is laid down here by
St. John. An easy-going Christianity could never have
survived ; it could not have conquered and trained the
world ; only the most convinced, resolute, almost bigoted
adherence to the most uncompromising interpretation of its
own principles could have given the Christians the courage
and self-reliance that were needed. For them to hesitate
or to doubt was to be lost.
Especially, it is highly probable that the Nicolaitans
either already had, or soon would have, reached the con-
clusion that they might justifiably comply with the current
test of loyalty, and burn a little incense in honour of the
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 301
Emperor. The Church was not disloyal ; even its most
fanatical defenders claimed to be loyal ; then why should
its members make any difficulty about proving their loy-
alty by burning a few grains of incense ? A little incense
was nothing. An excellent and convincing argument can
readily be worked out ; and then — the whole ritual of the
State religion would have followed as a matter of course ;
Christ and Augustus would have been enthroned side by
side as they were in the compromise attempted by the
Emperor Alexander Severus more than a century later ;
and everything that was vital in Christianity would have
been lost. St. John, like St. Paul in i Corinthians, saw
the real issue that lay before the Church — either it must
conquer and destroy the Imperial idolatry, or it must com-
promise and in so doing be itself destroyed. Both St.
Paul and St. John answered with the most hearty, un-
wavering, uncompromising decisiveness. Not the faintest
shadow of acquiescence in idolatry must be permitted to
the Christian. On this the Nicolaitans, with all good in-
tention, went wrong ; and to St. John the error was unpar-
donable. He compares the Nicolaitans to the Israelites
who were led astray into pleasure and vice by the subtle
plan of Balaam. No words of condemnation are too strong
for him to use. Their teaching was earthly, sensual, devil-
ish. In their philosophical refinements of argumentation
he saw only " the deep things of Satan ".
It is clear also that the Nicolaitans rather pitied and
contemned the humbler intelligence and humbler position
of the opposite section in the Church ; and hence we shall
find that both in the Thyatiran and in the Pergamenian
letter St. John exalts the dignity, authority and power
that shall fall to the lot of the victorious Christian. Christ
302 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
can and will give His ^true followers far more than the
Nicolaitans promise. No power or rank in the world
equals the lofty position that Christ will bestow ; the Imperial
dignity and the name of Augustus cannot be compared
with the dignity and name of the glorified Christ which He
will give to His own.
Further light is, as usual, thrown on the opening address
of the letter by the promise at the end : " To him that
overcometh will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give,
him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written^
which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it ".
The " white stone " was, doubtless, a tessera, and ought,
strictly speaking, to be called by that name, but the word
is not English and therefore is unsuitable. There is no
English word which gives an adequate rendering, for the
thing is not used among us, and therefore we have no
name for it. It was a little cube or rectangular block of
stone, ivory, or other substance, with words or symbols
engraved on one or more faces. Such tesserse were used
for a great variety of purposes. Here it is a sort of coupon
or ticket bearing the name, but it is not to be given up :
it is to remain secret, not to be shown to others, but to
be kept as the private possession of the owner.
An explanation of the white pebble or tessera with the
New Name has been sought in many different objects
used in ancient times, or ideas current among ancient
peoples, Greek, Roman, and Jewish. Some scholars quote
the analogy of the tessera given to proved and successful
gladiators inscribed with the letters SP, which they regard
as a new title spectatus, i.e., tried and proved ; but this ana-
logy, though tempting in some ways, will not bear closer
examination. The letters SP on the gladiatorial tessera are
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 303
considered by Mommsen to stand, not for spectatus^ but for
spectavit. Various theories are proposed about the mean-
ing ; but no theory makes out that a new name was given
to the proved gladiator with the tessera : he was simply
allowed to retire into private life after a proved and success-
ful career, instead of being compelled to risk his reputation
and life when his powers were failing. The analogy fails
in the most essential points.
Moreover, it is necessary that any suggestion as to the
origin of the sayings in the Seven Letters should be taken
from a phase of life familiar to the society to which they
were addressed. But gladiatorial exhibitions and profes-
sional gladiators (to whom alone the tesserae were given)
were an exotic in the Eastern Provinces : they were not
much to the taste of the Hellenes, but were an importation
from Rome. The influence of Roman fashions over the
Provinces was, indeed, strong enough to make gladiatorial
exhibitions a feature in many of the greater festivals in
Asia ; ^ but it does not appear that they ever became really
popular there, or that gladiatorial metaphors and allusions
to the life of professional gladiators ever passed into current
speech. None of the gladiatorial tesserae which are known
as yet have been found in the Province Asia. There is
therefore no reason to think that the Asian readers would
have caught the allusion to such tesserae even if St. John
had intended it (which is altogether unlikely).
Still more unsatisfactory are the comparisons suggested
between this white stone and the voting ballot used by jurors
or political voters, the tessera that served as an entrance-
ticket to distributions, banquets, or other public occasions,
and so on through all the various purposes served by such
tesserae or stones. All are unsatisfactory and elusive ; they
304 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
do not make the reader feel that he has gained a clear and
definite impression of the white pebble.
Yet, while none of these analogies is complete or satis-
factory in itself, perhaps none is entirely wrong. The
truth is that the white pebble with the New Name was
not an exact reproduction of any custom or thing in the
social usage of the time. It was a new conception, de-
vised for this new purpose ; but it was only a working up
into a new form of familiar things and customs, and it
was therefore completely intelligible to every reader in
the Asian Churches. It had analogies with many things,
though it was not an exact reproduction of any of them.
Probably the fact is that the pebble is simply an instrument
to bear the Name, and all the stress of the passage is laid
on the Name which is thus communicated. The reason
why the pebble is mentioned lies in a different direction
from any of the suggestions quoted above.
Two facts, however, are to be noticed with regard to
this "white pebble". In the first place, it is lasting and
imperishable. Hence, such a translation as " ticket " or
** coupon " would — apart from the modem associations — be
unsuitable. A " ticket " is for a temporary purpose ; this
pebble is eternal. According to the ancient view a close
relation existed between permanent validity and record
on some lasting imperishable material. The mere ex-
pression in writing of any idea or word or right or title
gave it a new kind of existence and an added effective-
ness, placed it in short on a higher plane in the universe.
But this new existence was, of course, dependent on the
permanence of the writing, i.e., on the lasting nature of
the material. Horace plays with the popular idea, when
he declares that his lyric poetry is a inonumentum aere
The Letter to the Church in Pergmmmt 305
perennius : laws, the permanent foundation of peace and
order in a city, were written on bronze ; but poetry will
outlast even bronze. The New Name, then, must be
written, not simply left as a sound in the air ; and it must
be written, not on the parchment made in the city (p. 290),
but on an imperishable material like this pebble.
In the second place the colour is important. It was
white, the fortunate colour. Suitability of the material to
the subject in writing seems to have been considered to
some degree in ancient time. Dr. Wunsch, one of the lead-
ing authorities, lays great stress on the fact that curses
and imprecations were usually written on lead, as proving
that lead was the deadly and ill-omened metal in Greece ;
and since many imprecations were found at Tel-Sanda-
hannah in the south-west of Palestine engraved on lime-
stone tablets,^ there is some temptation to regard limestone
as selected for a similar reason, and to contrast its dark,
ill-omened hue with the " white stone " engraved with the
New Name in this case. Some doubt however is cast on
this theory of material by the fact that a private letter, of
a kind which would not be written on a material recognised
as deadly and ill-omened, has recently been found incised
on a leaden tablet : it is published as the oldest Greek letter
in the Austrian Jahresliefte, 1904, p. 94. See p. 386.
Equally difficult is the allusion to the New Name. We
take it as clear and certain that the "new name" is the
name which shall be given to the conquering Christian ; and
the words are connected with the already established custom
of taking a new name at baptism.
The name acquired in popular belief a close connexion
with the personality, both of a human being and of a god.
The true name of a god was kept secret in certain kinds
3o6 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
of ancient religion, lest the foreigner and the enemy, by
knowing the name, should be able to gain an influence
over the god. The name guaranteed, and even gave, exist-
ence, reality, life: a new name implied the entrance on a
new life.
This old superstition takes a peculiar form among the
modern Jews of Palestine. It is their custom to change a
person's name in the case of a dangerous illness, as is men-
tioned by Mr. Macalister in the Quarterly Statement of the
Palestine Exploration Fund, April, 1904, p. 153. The new
name, which is retained ever afterwards, if the patient sur-
vives, frequently has reference to life, or is that of some Old
Testament saint whose life was specially long.
Accordingly the New Name that is given to the victorious
Christian marls:s his entrance on a new and higher stage of
existence ; he has become a new person. Yet this alone
would make an inadequate and unsatisfying explanation.
We miss the element of authority and power, which is im-
peratively demanded to suit the case of Pergamum. To
furnish this element the New Name must be the name of
God. Here, again, we find ourselves brought close to the
sphere of popular religion, superstition and magic. Know-
ledge of the compelling names of God, the names of God
which influence nature and the mysterious forces of the
universe, was one of the chief sources of the power which
both the Mysteries and the magic ritual claimed to give
their votaries. The person that had been initiated into the
Mysteries learned not merely the landmarks to guide him
along the road to the home of the Blessed — the white poplar
and the other signs by the way — he learned also the names
of God which would open the gates and bars before him,
and frighten away hostile spirits or transform them into
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 307
friends. Mr. Anderson Scott gives an excellent note on
this passage, which may be supplemented from Dieterich's
Mithrasliturgie, pp. 32-39. He who knows the right name
of a demon or divine being can become lord over all the
power that the demonic being possesses, just as he who
knows the name of a man was considered to possess some
power over the man, because the name partakes of reality
and not merely marks a man's personality, but is almost
identified with it.
Probably no incompatibility between these two aspects
of the New Name, as the name of God and as the name
of the individual Christian, was felt by the ancient readers
of this letter. The name that was written on the white
stone was at once the name of the victorious Christian and
the name of God. These two points of view approximated
towards one another, and passed into one another. Personal
names frequently were derived from, or even identical with, a
Divine name. The ordinary thought of primitive Greek and
of Anatolian religion — that the heroised dead had merely
returned to the Divine Mother who bore them, and become
once more identified with and merged in the divine nature —
also helped to obliterate the difference which we in modern
times feel between the two points of view. Here and in
the Philadelphian letter the name of God is also the name
of the victorious Christian, written on him in the latter case,
given him on a white tessera in the Pergamenian letter.
Pergamum and Philadelphia are the two Churches which
are praised because they "held fast my name," and "did
not deny it " ; and they are rewarded with the New Name,
at once the Name of God and their own, an eternal posses-
sion, known to the bearers only, the symbol and instrument
of wider power ; they shall not merely be " Christians," the
3o8 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
people of Christ ; they shall be the people of His new
personality as He is hereafter revealed in glory, bearing
that New Name of His glorious revelation.
The allusion to the "hidden manna" is one of the few
touches in the Seven Letters derived purely and exclusively
from the realm of Jewish belief and superstition. It is not
even taken from the Old Testament ; but is a witness that
some current Jewish superstitions acquired a footing in the
early Christian Church. According to a Jewish tale the
manna laid up " before the Testimony " in the Ark was
hidden in a cave of Mount Sinai, and would be revealed
when Messiah came. That superstition is here used as a
symbol to indicate the heavenly food that should impart
strength to the Christian. It is, however, quite probable
that there is some special suitability in this symbol, due
to popular, mixed Jewish and pagan, belief current in Asia,
which we have failed to catch.
As to the spirit in which popular beliefs are here used,
Mr. Anderson Scott in the note just quoted has said all
that there is to say. The same form of expression, which
is so frequent elsewhere in the Seven Letters, occurs here.
A contrast is intended between the ordinary popular custom
and the better form in which that custom is offered to the
true Christian : to the victorious Christian shall be given
the possession of a far more powerful and efficacious name
than any which he could learn about in the various kinds
of popular ritual, a name which will mark the transforma-
tion of his whole nature and his recreation in a new
character.
The promises and the principles of Christianity had to
be made intelligible to minds habituated to think in the
customary forms of ancient popular thought ; and they are
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 309
therefore expressed in the Apocalypse according to the
popular forms, but these forms must be understood as
merely figurative, as mere attempts, necessarily imperfect,
to reach and teach the popular mind. The words and
thoughts in the Seven Letters, when taken singly and
separately, are to a remarkable extent such as a pagan
mystic of the first or second century might have used ; and
we shall probably find that some champion will hereafter
appear to prove that the Seven Letters took their origin
from no mere Christian, but from a pagan mystic circle
tinged with semi-Gnostic developments of Christianity.
The same view has already been advocated by influential
scholars with regard to the epitaph of the Phrygian bishop,
Avircius Marcellus — with equal unreason in both cases (un-
less perhaps the Seven Letters present a more startlingly
pagan resemblance in some parts than the bishop's epi-
taph). Those who advocate such theories fail to catch the
spirit which lies in the Christian document as a whole.
The whole, in literature, is far more than the sum of the
separate parts : there is the soul, the life, the spirit that
gives vitality and unity to the parts. To miss that char-
acter in such a document is to miss what makes it Christian.
To miss that, is to miss everything. All those mystic rites
and popular cults were far from being mere imposture or
delusion ; they had many elements of truth and beauty ;
they were all trying to reach the same result as Christi-
anity, to satisfy the wants of the popular mind, to guide
it right in its groping after God. They all used many of
the same facts and rites, insisted ou many similar customs
and methods, employed often the same words and sym-
bols as Christianity used ; and yet the result is so utterly
different in character and spirit that one would have been
3 lo XXII. The Letter to the Chwch in Pergamum
inclined to say that not even a single paragraph or sentence
of any Christian document could have been mistaken for a
product of one of those Mystic circles of devotees, had it
not been for the treatment that the testament of Avircius
Marcellus has recently received from some high authorities
— discussed point by point, detail after detail, without re-
gard to the spirit of the whole, and thus proved to be non-
Christian by ignoring all that is Christian in it.
There is, however, a certain obscurity, which must evi-
dently be intentional, in this passage ; more is meant than
lies on the surface. Now the earlier part of the letter is
characterised by an unmistakable and yet carefully veiled
opposition to the State religion and to the government
which had provoked that opposition ; and this quality in
the letter guides us to the proper understanding of the
conclusion, which is one of the most remarkable passages
in the Seven Letters. The readers of this letter, who
possessed the key to its comprehension, hidden from the
common world, could not fail to be struck with the analogy
between this New Name and the Imperial title Augustus.
That also had been a new name, deliberately devised by
the Senate to designate the founder, and to mark the
foundation of the new Empire : it was an old sacred word,
used previously only in the language of the priests, and
never applied to any human being : hence Ovid says :
" Sancta vocant augusta palres " {Fast., i., 609). That old
word was appropriated in 27 B.C. to the man who had been
the saviour of Rome, and whom already the popular belief
had begun to regard as an incarnation of the divine nature
in human form, sent down to earth to end the period of
war and introduce the age of peace. This sacred, divine
name marked out the man to whom it was applied as one
The Letter to the Church in Perganium 311
apart from the world, standing on a higher level, possessor
of superhuman power in virtue of this new name and trans-
mitting that power through the name to his descendants.
The analogy was striking ; and the points of difference
were only to the advantage of the Christian. His new name
was secret, but all the more efficacious on that account.
The readers for whom this letter was written — the Chris-
tians of Pergamum, of all Asia, of the whole world — would
catch with certainty the hidden meaning. All those
Christians, when they were victorious, were to be placed in
the- same position as, or rather higher than, Augustus,
having a New Name, the Name of God, their own secret
possession, which no man would know and therefore no man
could tamper with by acquiring control through knowledge.
As Augustus had been set above the Roman world by his
new name, so they would be set above the world by theirs.
This is the answer which the Church made to the per-
secuting Emperor, who beyond all his predecessors prided
himself on his divine nature and his divine name. To in-
sult, proscription, a shameful death, it returns a triumphant
defiance : the Emperor is powerless : the supreme power
and authority remain with the victorious Christian, who
defeats the Emperor by virtue of the death which the
Emperor inflicts. Here for the first time in the Seven
Letters the absolute and inexorable opposition between the
Church and the Imperial government is clearly expressed.
It is not merely that the State persecutes the Church. The
Church proscribes and sets itself above the Augustan gov-
ernment and the Augusti themselves. And this is done in
the letter to the Church of that city where the Imperial
government with the Imperial religion had placed its capital
and its throne.
312 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
The taking of a new name, and the meaning attached to
this in the usage of the time, was orally illustrated by the
late Dr. Hort, from the case of ^lius Aristides, the famous
orator of Hadrianoi and Smyrna, as I am informed by a
correspondent,* though the lecture in which the illustration
was stated seems never to have been published. The facts
are known from various passages of Aristides, chiefly in
the Lalia (Hymn) to ^Esculapius and in the Sacred Dis-
courses.
The case of Aristides, who was bom probably in A.D.
117,^ may be taken as applicable to the period of the
Apocalypse. Aristides had a new name, which was given
him by the God, appearing to him in the form of ^scul i-
pius. That deity was his chief pro'ectcr and advi er and
helper, though the mo her of the God also reg r^Ied him
as \ie.x protege ■axi^ favourite, ^sculapius cuied him of his
disease, guided him in his life by ordering him to dev..te
himself to oratory, revealed himself to his favoured servant,
and gave him the name Theodoras. There is much prob-
ability that the name was given in a vision, though the
circumstances are not quite clear.
The evidence lies chiefly in a remarkable passage at
the end of Aristides's Hymn to .^sculapius, which Reiske
declares himself unable to understand, though he suggests
tha; it refers to some prophecy vouchsafed to Aristides by
^sculapius in a dream. Words which Reiske could not
understand must b.^ very obscure; and hence the passage
has attracted little attention.
It is rather bold to suggest an explanation where that
excellent scholar says "«i7« intelligo" ; but the words of
Aristides seem to illustrate the passage before us so well,
that an interpretation may be offered. The words and the
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 313
situation are as follows. Aristides has just related how
throup,h the orders and aid of ^sculapius he had appeared
in Rome and given a successful disp.ay of oiatoiy before
the two Emperors, the ladies of the Imperial family and
the whole Imperial court, just as Ulysses had been enabled
by Athena to display his eloquence in the hall of Alcinous
before the Phaeacian audience. He proceeds in the follow-
ing very enigmatic words : " And not only had these things
been done in this way, but also the Symbol or Synthema
was with me encouraging me, whilst you showed in act
that there were many reasons why you brought me before
the public, viz.^ that I might be conspicuous in oratory, and
that the most perfe^-t (the highest circles and the educated
class) might hear with their own ears the better counsels
{i.e. the teaching of a true philosophy and morality) ".^
The nature of the Synthema which Aristides received
from the god he does not explain. The obscurity in which
he leaves it is obviously intentional. It was a secret be-
tween the god and himself; he, and he alone, had been
initiated by the god into this ministry, and it was not to be
published for every one to know. Only they should under-
stand who might be initiated into the same mystery : the
word and the sign would be enough for them : others who
were outside should remain ignorant.
But Aristides adds one word which gives a hint as to the
purpose and effect of the Synthema : the Synthema was
something uvaKaXovv, something that addressed him in an
earnest, rousing way, a practical sign and proof that the
god for various reasons brought him before the assembled
world in order that he should gain distinction as an orator
and that the noblest should hear with their own ears
good counsel on good subjects. The Synthema then was
314 XXII. The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
a symbol always present with him and speaking direct to
him ; it was a pledge of success from the god who gave it,
and thus filled him with god-given confidence. Hence it
served for a call to action as an orator; for it recalled the
orders and assurances and promises which the god had
given him in the past, and was a pledge that there still
subsisted between the god and his votary that same bond
of connection and mutual confidence.
Aristides does not expressly say that the Synth6ma was
connected with the new name that was bestowed on him
by the god ; but there can hardly be any doubt that the
name and the sign stood in some close relation to one
another, and were given him at the same time, probably
(as Reiske thought) in a dream. In that dream or vision
the god had commissioned him to the profession of oratory,
had promised him constant aid, had guaranteed him bril-
liant success, and as a proof and pledge of the promised
aid had bestowed on him a new name, Theodorus, " the gift
of god," and a sign. So much seems practically certain.
Only one thing has to be added, which seems to spring
directly from these facts: the Sign must have been the
form in which the new name was communicated. Perhaps
in writing, perhaps in some other way, Aristides had always
with him the proof of the god's presence and aid. The
name was the power of the god, at once encouraging him
to effort and guaranteeing success.
In a sense not unlike this, the term Synthemata was
used to indicate the signs or words of a symbolic code)
which two persons arranged with one another in order that
their letters might convey more meaning to the intended
recipient than to any chance reader who was not aware of
the secret.
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum 315
It is to be observed that, though Aristides regarded
i^sculapius as his special protector and guide in life, the
name which was given him was not Asclepiodoros, but
Theodores, ^sculapius, who gave him the name, was
merely the form in which the ultimate divine power en-
visaged itself to Aristides ; it was " the god," and not
.^sculapius, whose name he bore.
Orators of that period seem commonly to have regarded
themselves as sent by divine mission, and as charged with
a message of divine truth. So Dion Chrysostom several
times claims divine mission ; and in one of his speeches at
Tarsus he explains that all that happens to us in an
unexpected, unintended, self-originated way, ought to be
regarded by us as sent to us by the god, and therefore,
as he has appeared in that way before the Tarsian audience,
they should regard him as speaking with authority as
the divine messenger. The speech was delivered probably
in the third period of Dion's career, which began when
he received news of the death of Domitian, and thus his
case illustrates strictly contemporary belief about those
travelling orators and teachers, who in many ways show
so close analogy to the Christian Apostles and travelling
preachers.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THYATIRA: WEAKNESS MADE STRONG.*
Thyatira was situated in the mouth of a long vale which
extends north and south connecting the Hermus and Caicos
Valleys. Down the vale a stream flows south to join the
Lycus (near whose left bank Thyatira was situated), one of
the chief tributaries of the Hermus, while its northern end
is divided by only a ridge of small elevation from the Caicos
Valley. The valleys of the two rivers, Hermus and Caicos,
stretch east and west, opening down from the edge of the
great central plateau of Anatolia towards the ^gean Sea.
Nature has marked out this road, a very easy path, for
the tide of communication which in all civilised times must
have been large between the one valley and the other. The
railway traverses its whole length now : in ancient times one
of the chief routes of Asia Minor traversed it.
Not merely did all communication and trade between
those two great and rich valleys pass up and down the
vale ; but also, in certain periods and in certain conditions
of the general economy of Asia Minor and the /Egean lands,
a main artery of the Anatolian system of communication
made use of it. The land-road connecting Constantinople
with Smyrna and the south-western regions of Asia Minor
goes that way, and has been at some periods an important
route. The Imperial Post-road took that course in Roman
times.^ Above all, when Pergamum was the capital of Asia
(316)
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong 3 1 7
under the kings, that was the most important road in the
whole country ; and its importance as the one great route
from Pergamum to the south-east (including all the vast
regions of the central Anatolian plateau, Syria and the
East generally) was proportionate to the importance which
the official capital of the Province retained under the Roman
administration.
In the middle of that vale, with a very slight rising ground
to serve for a citadel or acropolis, Thyatira was built by
Seleucus I., the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose vast
realm, extending from the Hermus Valley to the Himalayas,
was everywhere bounded loosely according to the varying
strength of rival powers. The boundary at this north-
western extremity was determined at that period by the
power of Lysimachus, who ruled parts of Thrace, Mysia
and the coast-lands as far south as Ephesus. For defence
against him, a colony of Macedonian soldiers was planted at
Thyatira between 300 and 282 B.C. The situation chosen
implies that the Caicos Valley belonged at that moment
to Lysimachus. Now Philetaerus governed Pergamum and
guarded the treasure of Lysimachus for many years, and
during that time the whole Caicos Valley would naturally
go along with Pergamum, while the Hermus Valley belonged
to the Seleucid realm.
In 282 Philetaerus revolted and founded the Pergamenian
kingdom. At first he was encouraged by Seleucus in order
to weaken Lysimachus ; but soon this bond of a common
enmity was dissolved at the death of the enemy, and then
Thyatira was a useful garrison to hold the road, first in
the interest of the Seleucid kings and afterwards on the
Pergamenian side. So long as the kings of Pergamum
were masters of Thyatira they were safe from Seleucid
3i8 XXIII. Thyatira: Weakness made Strong
attack ; but if the Syrian kings possessed that key to the
gate of the Caicos Valley, Pergamum was narrowed in its
dominion and weakened in its defences. Thus, the relation
between the two cities was necessarily a very close one.
The condition of Thyatira was the best measure of the
power of Pergamum.
This historical sketch is necessary, in order to show the
character of Thyatira and the place which it holds in his-
tory. It came into existence to be a garrison-city ; and its
importance to the two rival dynasties who alternately
Fia. 26.— The hero of Thyatira.
ruled it lay in its military strength. But no city has
been given by nature less of the look or strength of a for-
tress than Thyatira. It lies in an open, smiling vale,
bordered by gently sloping hills, of moderate elevation,
but sufficient to overshadow the vale. It possesses no
proper acropolis, and the whole impression which the situa-
tion gives is of weakness, subjection and dependence. The
most careless and casual observer could never take Thyatira
for a ruling city, or the capital of an Empire. Its character
is seen in the two views on Plates VIII., IX. It is essenti-
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong 3 1 9
ally a handmaid city, built to serve an Empire by obstructing
for a little the path of its enemies and so giving time for
the concentration of its military strength. Plate VIII.
The natural weakness of the position imposed all the
more firmly on the kingdom whose frontier it guarded the
necessity of attending to its military strength by careful
fortification and by maintaining in it a trained and devoted
garrison. The military spirit of the soldier-citizens had
to be encouraged to the utmost. This tendency towards
militarism must inevitably characterise Thyatira in all times
FlO. 27. — Caracalla adoring the God of Thyatira.
of uncertainty and of possible warfare : the function of the
city was to make a weak position strong, supply a defect,
and guard against an ever-threatening danger.
The religion of an ancient city always summed up its
character in brief. The Thyatiran religion is obscure, and
our chief authority lies in the coins of the city. A hero
Tyrimnos represents the Thyatiran conception of the city's
function in the world. He goes forth on horseback with
the battle-axe over his shoulder, the fit representative of a
military colony, to conquer, and to dash his enemies in
320 XXIII. Thyatira: Weakness made Strong
pieces. How far he may have a Macedonian origin, as
brought with them by the first Macedonian soldiers who
were settled there, remains doubtful ; but his aspect in art
is entirely that of a common Anatolian heroic figure, as
shown in Fig. 26.
This hero Tyrimnos is closely related in nature to the
tutelary god of Thyatira, whose full titles are recorded in
inscriptions : he was styled Propolis because he had his
temple in front of the city, Propator as the divine ancestor
(doubtless both of the city as a who^i and specially of
some leading family or families), Helios the sun-god, Pythian
Tyrimnaean Apollo, a strange mixture of Hellenic and Ana-
tolian names. This god is never named on the coins, so
far as published ; but he often appears as a type on them,
a standing figure, wearing only a cloak (chlamys) fastened
with a brooch round his neck, carrying a battle-axe over
one shoulder, and holding forth in his right hand a laurel-
branch, which symbolises his purifying power. This elab-
orate and highly composite impersonation of the Divine
nature, with so many names and such diversity of character,
seems to have been produced by a syncretism of different
religious ideas in the evolution of the city. Examples are
given in Figs. 27, 28.
Thyatira was certainly inhabited before the time of
Seleucus. The site is so favourable that it must become
a centre of population from the beginning of history in the
valley. But it was made a city by Seleucus with a great
accession of population. Previously it had been a mere
Anatolian village round a central temple. The foundation
of the garrison city was not without effect on the religion
of the locality. It was inevitable that the new-comers
should worship the god whose power in the country had
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong. 321
been proved by the experience of generations ; but they
brought with them also their own reh'gious ideas, and these
ideas necessarily affected their conception of the nature of
this god whom they found at home in the land and whose
power they respected and trusted. T)'rimnos, whatever
his origin may have been, was the heroic embodiment of
the spirit of the garrison city ; and the Anatolian god of
the locality took into himself some of the nature of the
hero, as Helios Tyrimnaios Pythios Apollo, a conception
FlQ. 38. — The Emperor and the god of Thyatira supporting with joined
hands the Imperial Tyrimnaean Pythian Games.
at once Anatolian, military, and Hellenic. The god united
in himself the character of all sections of the population, so
that all might find in him their own nature and the satis-
faction of their own religious cravings.
He stands for his city in alliance-coins with Pergamum ;
and frequently a female figure, wearing a turreted crown
(the accepted representation of the genius of any fortified
city), holds him forth on her extended right hand (as on
Fig. 27), thus intimating that Thyatira was devoted to the
service of this god. In Fig. 28 the Emperor Elagabalus,
322 XXIII. Thyatira: Weakness made Strong
in the dress of a Roman general, is shown with his right
hand in that of Apollo Tyrimnaios, supporting between
them an urn, over which is the name " Pythia ". The urn
is the regular symbol of those gymnastic and other com-
petitive sports in which the Hellenic cities delighted ; and
the name inscribed above shows that the Thyatiran games
were modelled upon the Pythian games of Greece. Be-
tween the Emperor and the god is an altar flaming with
the sacrifice. The coin was, indubitably, struck in gratitude
for some favour granted by the Emperor in connection with
those games in Thyatira. What the favour was can be
determined with great probability.
The union of the Emperor and the god in supporting
these games is the symbolic fashion of intimating, in a way
adapted for the surface of a coin, that the Emperor and the
god were united in the honour of the festival, that is to say,
the festival was no longer celebrated in honour of the god
alone, but included both Emperor and god. In other words
Elagabalus sanctioned the addition of the honourable title
Augustan to the old Tyrimnaean festival. During the third
century the feast and the games regularly bear the double
title, an example of the closer relation between the Imperial
and the popular religion in Asia under the later Empire.'
Seleucus I., the founder of Thyatira, is mentioned by
Josephus as having shown special favour to the Jews and
made them citizens in the cities which he founded in Asia.*
The probability that he settled a body of Jews in Thyatira
must therefore be admitted, for he knew well that soldiers
alone could not make a city (see p. 130). Beyond this
it is not possible to go with certainty ; but some slight
indications are known of the presence of Jews in Thy-
atira Lydia the Thyatiran in Philippi was " God-fearing,"
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong 323
i.e.^ she had come within the circle of influence of the
Synagogue. Professor E. Schiirer in a very interesting
paper has suggested the possibility that the sanctuary of
Sambethe the Oriental (Chaldaean, or Hebrew, or Persian)
Sibyl in the Chaldaean's precinct before the city of Thyatira
might have been formed under Hebrew influence : accord-
ing to this suggestion the sanctuary would have arisen in
an attempted syncretism of Jewish and pagan religious
ideas. But this remains as yet a mere tantalising possi-
bility.'^
The history of Thyatira is a blank. Its fate in the many
centuries of fighting between Mohammedans (Arabs first,
then Turks) and Christians must have been a sad one. It
is one of those cities whose situation exposes them to destruc-
tion by every conqueror, and yet compels their restoration
after every siege and sack. It lies right in the track of
invasion : it blocks the way and must be captured by an
invader ; it guards the passage to a rich district, and hence
it must be defended to the last, and so provoke the barbarity
of the assailant : but it could never be made a really strong
fortress in ancient warfare, so as to resist successfully. Yet
the successful assailant must in his turn refortify the city,
if he wants to hold the country. He must make it the
guardian of his gate ; he must make it a garrison city. Its
situation defines its history; but the history has not been
recorded.
The same local conditions which ensured for Thyatira so
unfortunate a fate in unsettled times favoured its prosper-
ity in a period of profound peace. The garrison city could
never be a large one, for a multitude of inhabitants devoted
to the arts of peace would seriously detract from its military
strength. But in the long peace of the Roman Empire
324 XXIII. Thyatira: Weakness made Strong
Thyatira ceased to be a mere military city, though the his-
torical memory and the military character of the municipal
religion still persisted. The city grew large and wealthy.
It was a centre of communication. Vast numbers passed
through it. It commanded a rich and fertile vale. Many
of the conditions of a great trading city were united there.
This period of great prosperity and increase was only
beginning when the Seven Letters were written. Thyatira
was still a small city, retaining strong memories of its
military origin, and yet with fortifications decayed and dis-
mantled in the long freedom from terror of attack, which
had lasted since 189 B.C.^ Yet the Roman peace had at
first brought no prosperity, only oppression and extortion.
When the Empire at last was inaugurated, prosperity re-
turned to Asia (see p. 115) ; and Thyatira soon began to
take advantage of its favourable situation for trade, though
it was not till the second century after Christ that the full
effect became manifest.
The coinage of Thyatira is a good index of the character
of the city. As a military colony, in its earlier stage of
existence, it struck various classes of coins, including cisto-
phori. This coinage came to an end before 150 B.C.; for
the military importance of Thyatira lay in its position as a
frontier city; and that ceased after 189 B.C. It was not
until the last years of the reign of Claudius, 50-54 A.D., that
it began again to issue coins. They gradually became more
numerous ; and in the latter part of the second century, and
in the third century, the coinage of Thyatira was on a great
scale, indicating prosperity and wealth in the city.
It is therefore not surprising that more trade-guilds are
known in Thyatira than in any other Asian city. The
inscriptions, though not specially numerous, mention the
Thyatira : Weakness made Strong 325
following : wool-workers, linen-workers, makers of outer gar-
ments, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave-
dealers and bronze-smiths. The dealers in garments and
the slave-dealers would have a good market in a road-
centre. Garments were sold ready made, being all loose
and free ; and from the mention of dealers in outer garments
we may infer the existence of special trades and guilds for
other classes of garments. The woman of Thyatira, a seller
of purple, named Lydia, who was so hospitable to St. Paul
and his company at Philippi (Acts xvi 14), belonged doubt-
FiG. 29. — The Thyatiran bronze-smith,
less to one of those guilds : she sold not simply purple
cloth but purple garments, and had emigrated to push the
trade in Thyatiran manufactures in the Macedonian city.
The purple in which she dealt cannot be regarded as made
with the usual dye, for that was obtained from a shell-fish
found chiefly on the Phoenician and the Spartan coasts.
The colour in which Lydia dealt must have been a product
of the Thyatiran region ; and Monsieur Clerc, in his work
on the city,^ suggests what is at once seen plainly to be
true, that the well-known Turkey-red was the colour which
326 XXIII. Thyatira: Weakness made Strong
is meant. This bright red is obtained from madder-root,
which grows abundantly in those regions. It is well known
that the ancient names of colours were used with great
laxity and freedom ; and the name purple, being established
and fashionable, was used for several colours which to us
seem essentially diverse from one another.
A special interest attaches to Fig. 29. The divine smith,
Hephaestus, dressed as a workman, is here seated at an anvil
(represented only by a small pillar), holding in his left hand
a pair of forceps, and giving the finishing blow with his
hammer to a helmet, for which the goddess of war, Pallas
Athene, is holding out her hand. Considering that a guild
of bronze-smiths is mentioned at Thyatira, we cannot doubt
that this coin commemorates the peculiar importance for
the welfare of Thyatira of the bronze-workers' handicraft ;
and we must infer that bronze work was carried to a high
state of perfection in the city.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA.
These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like a flame of
fire, and his feet are like bright bronze :
I know thy works, cmd thy love and faith and ministry and patience,
and that thy last works are more than the first. But I have this against
thee, that thou sufferest the woman of thine, fezebel, which calleth herself a
prophetess ; and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornica-
tion, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time that she
should repent ; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication. Behold,
I set her on a banqueting couch, and them that commit adultery with her, to
enjoy great — tribulation, except they repent of her works. And I will kill
her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he
which searcheth the reins and hearts : and I will give unto each one of you
according to your works. But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thya-
tira, as many as have not this teaching, which know not the deep things of
Satan, as they say ; I lay upon you no other burden. Howbeit that which
ye have, hold fast till I come.
And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to
him will I give authority over the nations : and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers ; as I also have
received of my Father : and I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
This is in many respects the most obscure, as it is certainly
the longest, and probably in a historical view the most in-
structive of all the Seven Letters. Its obscurity is doubt-
less caused in a considerable degree by the fact that the
history of Thyatira, and the character and circumstances
of the city in the first century after Christ, are almost en-
tirely unknown to us. Hence those allusions to the past
(327)
v/
328 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
history and the present situation of affairs in the city,
which we have found the most instructive and illuminative
parts of the letters to Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum,
are in the case of Thyatira the most obscure. We have
some idea of what were the proper topics for an orator to
enlarge on when he wished to please the people of Ephesus
or Perc;^amum. We know how a rhetorician like Aelius
Aristides tickled the ears of the Smyrnaeans. We know
what events in the past history of those cities, as well as of
Sardis, had sunk into the heart of the inhabitants, and
were remembered by all with ever fresh joy or sorrow.
Even in the case of the secondary cities, Laodicea and
Philadelphia, we learn some hi ng from various ancient
authorities about the leading facts of their history and pre-
sent circumstances, the sources of their wealth, the staple
of their trade, the disasters that had befallen them. But
about Thyatira we know extremely little. Historians and
ancient writers generally rarely allude to it, and the numer-
ous inscriptions which have been discovered and published
throw little or no light (so far as we can at present detect)
upon the letter which we are now studying.
There is a considerable resemblance between the Thya-
tiran and Pergamenian letters. Those were the only two
of the Seven Cities which had been strongly affected by the
Nicolaitan teaching, and both letters are dominated by the
strenuous hatred of the writer for that heresy. Moreover,
those two cities lay a little apart from the rest, away in the
north. They were the two Mysian c'ties of the Seven.
Pergamum was always called a Mysian city. Thyatira was
sometimes called " the last, i.e. the most southerly, city of
Mysia"; and it stood in t! ? closest relations with Perga-
mum, when the latter was the capital of the Attalid kings ;
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 329
although, in the proverbial uncertainty of the Mysian
frontier, most people considered it a city of Lydia. It may
therefore be presumed that the two had a certain local
character in common.
Accordingly, there may be traced a common type both
in the preliminary addresses and in the promises at the end
of those two letters. The strength of authority, the sword
as the symbol of the power of life and death, the tessera
inscribed with the secret name of might — such are the topics
that give character to the Pergamenian exordium and con-
clusion. The Thyatiran letter proceeds from " the Son of
God, who hath His eyes like a flame of fire and His feet
like unto bright bronze" (the very hard alloyed metal,
used for weapons, and under proper treatment assuming a
brilliant polished gleam approximating to gold); to the
victorious Christian of Thyatira is promised " authority over
the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as
the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers " ; the terror
and, as one might almost say, the cruelty of this promise is
mitigated by the conclusion, " and I will give him the morn-
ing star". The spirit of the address and the promise is
throughout of dazzlingly impressive might, the irresistible
strength of a great monarch and a vast well-ordered army.
The words which are used in this Thyatiran address have
an appropriateness, which we can only guess at. The term
" chalkolibanos," which may be rather vaguely rendered
" bright bronze," never occurs except in the Apocalypse. Its
exact sense was doubtless known to the guild of the bronze-
workers in Thyatira ; but only the name of this city guild has
been preserved, without any information as to the industry
which they practised. This is one of the details on which
better local knowledge would almost certainly throw light.
330 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
It may be regarded as probable, though no other author-
ity ever mentions this obscure term, that chalkoHbanos
was made in Thyatira ; but all that can be stated with
certainty is that the city was a trading and manufacturing
centre, that we know of an exceptionally large and varied
series of trade-guilds in it, and that among them occurred
the bronze-smiths and modellers in bronze (either as two
separate guilds or as one). The word chalkoHbanos occurs
also in i. 15, but (as has been pointed out in chapter xiii.)
the description of "one like unto a son of man," i. 12 fF.,
was obviously composed with a view to the Seven Letters,
so as to exhibit there, united in one personality, the various
characteristics which were to be thereafter mentioned separ-
ately in the letters. Accordingly the chalkoHbanos may
probably have suggested itself in the first place for the
purposes of the Thyatiran letter ; so that its use in i. 15
may be secondary, merely to prepare for the letter.
The omission of the " sword " as the symbol of might
also shows characteristic accuracy in the choice of details.
The sword was the symbol of higher official authority ac-
cording to the Roman usage. It shows, therefore, a marked
appropriateness that the writer should use the term "sword"
in reference to Pergamum, the official capital and seat of
the Roman Proconsul, but avoid it in the case of Thyatira.
On the other hand the " rod of iron " is expressive of might
that is not thought of as associated with formal authority,
but merely arises from innate strength. Thyatira could not
properly bear the sword, but only the iron bar.
The original character of Thyatira had been military. It
was a colony of Macedonian soldiers, planted to guard the
long pass leading north and south between the Hermus
Valley and the Caicus Valley, between Sardis and Per-
The Letter to the Church in Thy at ir a 331
gamum. Its tutelary deity was Tyrimnos, originally ap-
parently a hero, but merged in the divine nature as Apollo
Tyrimnaios. The hero is represented often as a horse-
man with a double-edged battle-axe on his shoulder, an
appropriate deity for a military colony. The glitter and
brilliance and smashing power of a great army, or a
military colony, or the Divine Author of the Thyatiran
letter, are embodied in him.
In short, just as in the case of Pergamum, so here again,
the promise sets the true and victorious Christian in the
place and dignity of the Roman Emperor. Rome was the
only power on earth that exercised authority over the na-
tions, and ruled them with a rod of iron, and smashed them
like potsherds : to the Roman State that description is
startlingly applicable. Accordingly the promise here de-
signates the victor as heir to a greater, more terrible, more
irresistible strength than even the power of the mighty
Empire with all its legions. The opposition was more
precisely and antithetically expressed in the case of Perga-
mum, at least to the readers who were within the circle of
ancient ideas and education ; though probably the modern
mind is likely to recognise the antithesis between the Church
and the Empire more readily and clearly in the Thyatiran
letter, since we at the distance of nearly 2,000 years can
more readily call up in imagination the military strength of
the Empire and its armies. But in the first century the
minds of men were filled and awed by the thought of the
Emperor as the central figure of the whole earth, concen-
trating on himself the loyal religious feelings of all nations,
and holding in his hands that complete authority, indefin-
able because too wide for definition, which the autocrat
of the civilised world exercised by the simple expression
332 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
of his will ; and that is the idea to which the Pergamenian
letter appealed.
It could not escape the attention of an Asian reader
at that time that this irresistible power and strength were
promised to the city which was at that time the smallest
and feeblest, and in general estimation the least distin-
guished and famous, of all the Seven Cities, except perhaps
Philadelphia, which might vie with Thyatira for the last
place on the list.
The local surroundings of Thyatira accentuate this com-
paratively humble character of its fortunes. It lies in the
middle of a long valley between parallel ridges of hills of
no great elevation, which rise with gentle slope from the
valley. Thus there is the most marked contrast between
the situation of Thyatira — now " sleeping safe in the bosom
of the plain " under the peace of the Roman rule, though
(if any enemies had existed) easily open to attack from
every side, dominated by even those low and gentle
ranges of hills on east and west, beautiful with a gentle,
smiling, luxuriant softness and grace — and the proud and
lofty acropolis of Sardis, or the huge hill of Pergamum,
or the mountain-walls of Ephesus and the castled hill of
Smyrna, each with its harbour, or the long sloping hillside
on which Philadelphia rises high above its plain, or the
plateau of Laodicea, not lofty, yet springing sharp and bold
from the plain of the Lycus, crowned with a long line of
strong walls and so situated on the protruding apex of a
triangular extent of hilly ground that it seems to stand up
in the middle of the plain. Plate IX.
Military skill, such as the Pergamenian kings had at their
command, could of course so fortify Thyatira as to make it
strong enough to hold the passage up the long valley. The
t'i ~
The Letter to the Church in Thyattra 333
importance of the city to the kings lay in the fact that it
guarded the road from the Hermus Valley and the East
generally to Pergamum. Its function in the world at first
had been to serve as attendant and guard to the governing
royal city. Now, under the long peace of the Imperial rule,
it had become a town of trade and peaceful industry, profit-
ing by its command of a fertile plain and still more by its
situation on a great road ; and beyond all doubt the military
character of its foundation by the kings, as a garrison of
Macedonian soldiers to block the road to their capital from
the south, was now only a historical memory.
Thus Thyatira of all the Seven Cities seemed in every
way the least fitted by nature and by history to rule over
the nations ; and it could not fail to be observed by the
Asian readers as a notable thing, that the Church of this
weakest and least famous of the cities should be promised
such a future of strength and universal power. Beyond all
doubt the writer of the Seven Letters, who knew the cities
so well, must have been conscious of this, and must have
relied on it for the effect which he aimed at.
As we go through the Seven Letters point by point, each
detail confirms our impression of the unhesitating and sub-
lime confidence in the victory of the Church which prompts
and enlivens them. The Emperor, the Roman State with
its patriotism, its religion, and its armies, the brutal popu-
lace of the cities, the Jews, and every other enemy of the
Church, all are raging and persecuting and slaying to the
utmost of their power. But their power is naught. The
real Church stands outside of their reach, immeasurably
above them, secure and triumphant, "eternal in the heavens,"
while the individual Christians work out their victory in
their own life and above all by their death ; so that the
334 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
more successfully the enemy kills them off, the more ab-
solute is his defeat, and the more complete and immediate
is their victory. The weakest and least honoured among
those Christian martyrs, as he gains his victory by death,
is invested with that authority over the nations, which
the proud Empire believed that its officials and governors
wielded, and rules with a power more supreme than that
of Rome herself.
The conclusion of the promise, "/ will give him the
morning star" seems to have been added with the calcu-
lated intention of expressing the other side of the Christian
character. The honour promised was evidently too exclu-
sively terrible. But the addition must be in keeping with
the rest of the promise. The brightness, gleam and glitter,
as of '^ an army with banners" which rules through the
opening address and the concluding promise, is expressed
in a milder spirit, without the terrible character, though
the brilliance remains or is even increased, in the image of
*' the morning star ".
Having observed the close relation between the Per-
gamenian and the Thyatiran letter, we shall recognise a
similar analogy between the Ephesian and the Sardian,
and again between the Smyrnaean and the Philadelphian
letters. Those six letters constitute three pairs ; and each
pair must be studied not only in its separate parts, but also
in the mutual relation of the two parts. Only the Laodi-
cean letter stands alone, just as Laodicea stood apart from
the other six, the representative of the distant and very
different Phrygian land.
As usual, the letter proper begins with the statement that
the writer is well acquainted with the history and fortunes
of the Thyatiran Church. The brief first statement is
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 335
entirely laudatory. " I know thy works, and thy love and
faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works
are more than the first." Whereas Ephesus had fallen
away from its original spirit and enthusiasm, Thyatira had
grown more energetic as time elapsed.
But after this complimentary opening, the letter denounces
the state of the Thyatiran Church in the most outspoken
and unreserved way. It had permitted and encouraged
the Nicolaitan doctrine, and harboured the principal ex-
ponent of that teaching in the Province.
We observe here, first of all, that the Nicolaitan doctrine
had not caused any falling off in the good deeds of the
Church. On the contrary, it was probably the emulation
between the two parties or sections of the Church, and the
desire of the Nicolaitans to show that they were quite as
fervent in the faith as the simpler Christians whose opinions
they desired to correct, that caused the improvement in
the "works" of the Thyatiran Church. We recognise
that it was quite possible for Nicolaitans to continue to
cherish " love and faith and ministry and patience," and to
improve in the active performance of the practical work
of a congregation (among which public charities ^ and sub-
scriptions were doubtless an important part). Public sub-
scriptions for patriotic and religious purposes were common
in the Graeco-Roman world ; the two classes were almost
equivalent in ancient feeling ; all patriotic purposes took a
religious form, and though only the religious purpose is as
a rule mentioned in the inscriptions in which such contri-
butions are recorded, the real motive in most cases was
patriotic, and the custom of making such subscriptions was
undoubtedly kept up by the Christian Church generally
(see Acts xi. 29, xxiv. 17, i Cor. xvi. i, 2, 2 Cor. ix. 1-5),
336 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
The Thyatiran Nicolaitans, true to their cherished prin-
ciple of assimilating the Church usage as far as possible to
the character of existing society, would naturally encourage
and maintain the custom. It makes this letter more cred-
ible in other points, that in this one it cordially admits
and praises the generosity of the whole Thyatiran Church,
including the Nicolaitans.
It seems therefore to be beyond all doubt that, as a rule,
the Nicolaitans of Thyatira, with the prophetess as their
leader, were still active and unwearied members of the
Church, " full of good works," and respected by the whole
congregation for their general character and way of life.
The sentiment entertained with regard to them by the
congregation is attested by the letter: " Thou sufferest
the woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, and
she teacheth ". It is evident that the lady who is here so
rudely referred to was generally accepted in Thyatira as a
regular teacher, and as a prophetess and leader in the
Church. There was no serious, general, active opposition
to her ; and therein lay the fault of the whole congregation ;
she had firmly established herself in the approval of the
congregation ; and, as we have seen, she was so respected
because by her liberal and zealous and energetic life she
had deserved the public esteem. She was evidently an
active and managing lady after the style of Lydia, the
Thyatiran merchant and head of a household at Philippi ;^
and it is an interesting coincidence that the only two
women of Thyatira mentioned in the New Testament are
so like one another in character. The question might even
suggest itself whether they may not be the same person,
since Lydia seems to disappear from Philippian history (so
far as we are informed of it) soon after St. Paul's visit to
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira Ty-^"]
the city. But this question must undoubtedly be answered
in the negative, for it is utterly improbable that the hostess
of St. Paul would ever be spoken about so mercilessly and
savagely as this poor prophetess is here. The prophetess
furnishes just one more example of the great influence
exerted by women in the primitive Church.
The extremely bitter and almost virulent tone in which
the prophetess is spoken of seems, therefore, not to be due
to her personal character, but to be caused entirely by the
principles which she set forth in a too persuasive and suc-
cessful way: she was exercising an unhealthy influence,
and her many excellent qualities made her the more dan-
gerous, because they increased the authority of her words.
At the present day, when we love milder manners and are
full of allowance for difference of opinion and conduct in
others, the harshness with which disapproval is here ex-
pressed must seem inharmonious and repellent. But the
writer was influenced by other ways of thinking and differ-
ent principles of action ; and we should not estimate either
him or the prophetess by twentieth century standards.
It may be added that I have read more than once Pro-
fessor E. Schiirer's paper on the Thyatiran Jezebel — at
first with admiration and interest, but with growing dis-
satisfaction during subsequent thought, until in a final closer
study of the whole Seven Letters it seems to me to be
entirely mistaken in its whole line of interpretation. He
finds in " Jezebel " a prophetess and priestess of the temple
of a Chaldaean Sibyl in Thyatira, where a mixture of pagan
rites with Jewish ideas was practised.
It is unnecessary here to dilate on the importance of
the order of prophets in the primitive Church ; but we
should be glad to know more about this Thyatiran pro-
22
338 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
phetess, a person of broad views and reasonable mind,
who played a prominent part in a great religious move-
ment, and perished defeated and decried. She ranks with
the Montanist prophetesses of the second century, or the
Cappadocian prophetess about whom Firmilian wrote to
Cyprian in the third century ; one of those leading women
who seem to have emphasised too strongly one side of a
case, quite reasonable in itself, through failure to see the
other side sufficiently. They all suffer the hard fate of
being known only through the mouth of bitter enemies,
whose disapproval of their opinions was expressed in the
harsh, opprobrious, half- figurative language of ancient moral
condemnation. Thus for the most part they are stigma-
tised as persons of the worst character and the vilest
life.
We take a much more favourable view of the character of
the lady of Thyatira than the commentators usually do.
Thus Mr. Anderson Scott speaks of her teaching as " en-
couragement to licentiousness," and of the " libertinism
which was taught and practised in Thyatira " ; and she is
generally regarded as entirely false, abandoned and im-
moral in her life and her teaching. This usual view is
founded mainly on the misinterpretation of ii. 22, which
will be explained in the sequel. It seems to us to miss
completely the real character and the serious nature of the
question which was being agitated at the time, and which
probably was finally determined and set at rest by the
decision stated in the Seven Letters and in the oral teach-
ing of the author. In this and various other so-called
" heresies " the right side was not so clear and self-evident
as it is commonly represented in the usual popularly ac-
cepted histories of the Church and commentaries on the
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 339
ancient authorities. The prophetess was not all evil —
that idea is absolutely contradictory of the already quoted
words of the letter, ii. 19 — and the opposite party had no
monopoly of the good in practical life.
The strong language of ii. 20, 21 is due in part to the
common symbolism found in the Old Testament and
elsewhere, describing the lapses of Israel into idolatry as
adultery and gross immorality. But in greater measure it
is due to the fact that the idolatrous ritual of paganism
was always in practice associated with immoral customs
of various kinds ; that, although a few persons of higher
mind and nobler nature might perhaps recognise that the
immorality was not an essential part of the pagan ritual,
but was due to degeneracy and degradation, it was im-
possible to dissociate the one from the other ; and that the
universal opinion of pagan society accepted as natural and
justifiable and right — if not carried to ruinous extremes —
such a way of life, with such relations between the sexes,
as Christianity and Judaism have always stigmatised as
vicious, degrading, and essentially wrong. The principles
of the Xicolaitans seemed to St. John certain to lead to an
acquiescence in this commonly accepted standard of pagan
society, and he held that the Nicolaitan prophetess was
responsible for all that followed from her teaching. That
he was right no one can doubt who studies the history of
Greek and Roman and West Asiatic paganism as a practical
force in human life. That there were lofty qualities and
some high ideals in those pagan religions the present writer
has always recognised and maintained in the most empha-
tic terms ; but, in human nature, the inevitable tendency of
paganism was towards a low standard of moral life, as
has been set forth more fully in an account of the Re-
340 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
ligion of Greece and Asia Minor in Hastings' Dictionary of
the Bible, vol. v., pp. 109-155.
A third reason also determined the author to employ the
strong language which occurs in ii. 20. Evidently the de-
cision of the Apostolic Council, though relating to a different
question, dictated the form which the author of the letter
has employed. That decision was evidently present in his
memory as authoritative on an allied question ; and he
alludes to it in an easily understood way, which he evi-
dently expected his readers to appreciate. He turns in v,
24 to address the section of the Thyatiran Church which
had not accepted the Nicolaitan teaching, and tells them
that he lays no other burden upon them. The burden
which has been already imposed on all Christians by the
Council is sufficient, " These necessary things, that ye abstain
from things sacrificed to idols . . . and from fornication "
(Acts XV. 28). The expression, " no other burden^' implies
that the necessary minimum burden is already before
the writer's mind, and that he assumes it to be also be-
fore the readers' mind ; he assumes that the readers have
already caught the allusion in ii. 20, " She teacheth and
seduceth my servants to commit fornication and to eat
things sacrificed to idols" i.e., she teaches them to violate
the fundamental rule of the Apostolic Council. But, as he
implies, while this minimum burden must be borne and
cannot be avoided by any sophistry and skilful religious
casuistry — which the Nicolaitans regarded as high tran-
scendental conception of the things of God, but which is
really "the cryptic lore and deep lies of the devil" — he
imposes on them no further burden. This is sufficient, but
it is inevitable : there is no more to be said. The Nicolaitans
explain this away, and thereby condemn themselves.
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 341
I have assumed hitherto that the true reading is " the
woman Jezebel," as in R.V. and A.V. ; but with Alford I
think it probable that the proper text is Tr)v f^waiKa aov,
where the form which commonly is equivalent to "thy
wife" is used symbolically to indicate a specially prominent
woman in the Thyatiran Church, " the woman of thine ".
There was a great temptation to drop out aov, in order to
avoid the apparent incongruity of calling Jezebel the wife of
the Church ; and there was no reason for its insertion, if it
had not originally had a place in the text. As we under-
stand the context, the addition of aov only expresses more
emphatically a meaning which lies in the passage as a whole,
even when aov is omitted.
The following sentences are the one main source of all
the little we can gather about the Nicolaitan principles.
The allusions in the Pergamenian letter, obscure in them-
selves, become more intelligible when read in connec.ion
with the words here. The obscurity is due to our ignor-
ance of what was familiar to the original Asian readers.
They were living through these questions, and caught every
allusion and hint that the writer of the letter makes.
The questions wliich are here treated belong to an early
period in the history of the Church. They are connected
with the general conduct of pagan converts in the Church.
How much should be required of them ? What burdens
should be imposed on them ? The principles that should
regulate their conduct are here regarded, of course, from
the point of view of their relation to the ;_:eneral society of
the cities in which they lived. They had for the most part
been members, and some of them leading members, of that
society before their conversion. We may here leave out of
sight the Christianised Jews in the Asian congregations,
342 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
who had in a way been outside of ordinary pagan society
from the beginning; for, though they were a part, and
possibly even an influential part, of the Church, yet the
Seven Letters were not intended specially for them, and
hardly touch the questions that most intimately concerned
them. These letters are addressed to pagan converts, and
set forth in a figurative way the principles that they should
follow in their relations with ordinary society and the
Roman State.
On the other hand, the relation of the pagan converts
to Judaism is hardly alluded to in the Seven Letters.
That question was now past and done with ; the final
answer had been given ; there was no need for further in-
structions about it. In practice, of course, the relation
between Jewish Christians and pagan converts continued
to exist in the congregations ; but the general principles
were now admitted, and were of such a kind as to place an
almost impassable barrier between the national Jews and
the Church. To the writer of the Seven Letters, the Jews
were the sham Jews, " the synagogue of Satan" according
to a twice repeated expression : God had turned away from
them, and had preferred the pagan converts, who now were
the true seed of Abraham : the sham Jews would have to
recognise the facts, accept the situation, and humble them-
selves before the Gentile Christians : " Behold^ I give of the
Synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are fews and
they are not, but speak falsely ; behold I will make them to
come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have
loved thee". Thus the situation in the Church was de-
veloped now far beyond what it had been in the time of
St. Paul : and his settlement of the Jewish question had
been accepted completely by the Church, and is stated as
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 343
emphatically and aggressively here by this Jewish writer
as by Paul himself.
It is unnecessary here to repeat the elaborate discussion
of this subject which is given in the Expositor^ present series,
vol. ii., pp. 429-444; vol. iii., pp. 93-1 10. There some of
the many difficulties are described which presented them-
selves every day to the converts from paganism. It was
accepted on all hands that they were to continue to live in
the world, and were not to seek to withdraw entirely out
of it (i Cor. V. 10). There were certain accepted customs,
rules of politeness and courtesy, ways of living and acting,
which were recommended by their gracious, refined, ele-
gant character, and other ways which without any special
gracefulness were recommended simply because they were
the ordinary methods of behaviour. If we live in a long-
established and cultivated society, we must do many
things, not because we specially approve of them, or derive
pleasure or advantage of any kind from them, but simply
from consideration for the feelings of others, who expect us
to do as the rest of society does. There are even some
things which we hardly quite approve ; and yet we do not
feel that we ought to condemn them openly, or withdraw
in a marked way from social gatherings where they are
practised. Such extremely strict carrying out of our own
principles would quickly become harsh, rude, and misan-
thropic ; and would justly expose any one who was often
guilty of it to the charge of self-conceit and spiritual pride.
How much might one accept ; and what must one
condemn ? Such questions as these were daily presenting
themselves to the Christians in the Graeco- Roman cities ;
and they were then almost invariably complicated by the
additional difficulty that all established usages, social cus-
344 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
toms, rules of polite conduct, forms of graceful courtesy,
were (with rare exceptions) implicated in and coloured by
idolatrous associations. Grace belore meat, thanksgiving
after food, were in the strictest sense slight acts of ac-
knowledgment of the kindness and the rights of pagan
divinities. Such ceremonies had often become mere forms,
and those who complied with those customs were often
hardly conscious of the religious character of the action.
How far was the Christian bound to take notice of their
idolatrous character and to avoid acting in accordance with
them, or even to express open disapproval of them ? So
far as we can gather, the rule laid down by St. Paul, and
the practice of the Church, was that only in quite excep-
tional, rare cases should open disapproval of the customs
of society be expressed ; in many cases, where the idolatrous
connection was not obvious, but only veiled or remote, the
Christian might (and perhaps even ought to) comply with
the usual forms, unless his attention was expressly called
by any one of the guests to the idolatrous connection ; in
that case the rude remark was equivalent to a challenge
to deny or affirm boldly his religion, and the Christian
must affirm his religion, and refuse compliance. Also,
where the idolatrous character of the act was patent and
generally recognised, the Christian must refuse compliance.
Hence there was a general tendency among the Christians
to avoid situations, offices, and paths of life, in which the
performance of idolatrous ceremonial was necessary ; and
on this account they were generally stigmatised as morose,
hostile to existing society, and deficient in active patriotism,
if not actually disloyal.
Besides these slighter cases, there were many of a much
more serious character. The Roman soldier, marching
The Letter to the Chnj'ch in Thyatira 345
under the colours of his regiment, was marching under
the standard of idolatry, for the standards {signa) were
all divine, and worship was paid to them by the soldiers
as a duty of the service, and all contained one or more
idolatrous symbols or representations ; moreover he was
frequently required, standing in his place in the ranks, to
take part in idolatrous acts of worship. The soldier could
not retire and take to some other way of life, for he was
bound to the service through a long term of years. Here,
again, the rule and practice of the Church seems to have
been that in ordinary circumstances the converted soldier
should remain passive, and as far as possible silent, during
the ceremony at which he was compulsorily present, but
should not actively protest. A similar practice was en-
couraged by the Church in other departments of life and
work. But in every case, and in every profession, the
Christian, who in ordinary circumstances might remain
passive and unprotesting, was liable to be pointedly
challenged as to whether he would willingly perform this
act of worship of the deity whom he considered false. In
case of such a challenge, there was only one course open.
The Christian could not comply with a demand which
was expressly made a test of his faith.
But apart from those many doubtful cases where the
right line of conduct was difficult to determine and might
vary according to circumstances, there was a large number
of cases in which the decision of the early leaders of
the Church was absolute and unvarying. In whatsoever
society, or company, or meeting, or ceremonial, the condi-
tion of presence and membership lay in the performance of
pagan ritual as an express and declared act of religion, the
Christian must have no part or lot, and could not accept
346 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
membership or even be present. Here the Nicolaitans took
the opposite view, and could defend, their opinion by many
excellent, thoroughly reasonable and highly philosophic ar-
guments. To illustrate this class of cases, we may take an
example of a meeting which was permissible, and of one
which was not, according to the opinion of those early
leaders of the Church. A meeting of the citizens of a city
for political purposes was always inaugurated by pagan
ritual, and according to the strict original theory the citizens
in this political assembly were all united in the worship of
the patron national deity in whose honour the opening
ceremonies were performed ; but the ritual had long be-
come a mere form, and nobody was in practice conscious
that the condition of presence in the assembly lay in the
loyal service of the national deity. The political condition
was the only one that was practically remembered : every
member of a city tribe had a right to be present and vote.
The Christian citizen might attend and vote in such a
meeting, ignoring and passing in silence the opening re-
ligious ceremony.
But, on the other hand, there were numerous societies
for a vast variety of purposes, the condition of membership
in which was professedly and explicitly the willingness to
engage in the worship of a pagan deity, because the society
met in the worship of that deity, the name of the society
was often a religious name, and the place of meeting was
dedicated to the deity, and thus was constituted a temple
for his worship. The Epistles of Paul, Peter, Jude, and
the Seven Letters, all touch on this topic, and all are
agreed : the true Christian cannot be a member of such
clubs or societies. The Nicolaitans taught that Christians
ought to remain members ; and doubtless added that they
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 347
would exercise a good influence on the societies by
continuing in them.
This very simple and practical explanation will, doubt-
less, seem to many scholars to be too slight for the serious
treatment that the subject receives in the two letters which
we are studying. Such scholars regard grave matters of
dogma as being the proper subject for treatment in the
early Christian document ; they will probably ridicule the
suggestion that the question, whether a Christian should join
a club or not, demanded the serious notice of an apostle,
and declare that this was the sort of question on which the
Church kept an open mind, and left great liberty to indi-
viduals to act as they thought right (just as they did in
regard to military service, magistracies, and other important
matters) ; and they will require that Nicolaitanism should
be regarded from a graver dogmatic point of view. The
present writer must confess that those graver subjects of
dogma seem to him to have been much over-estimated ; it
was not dogma that moved the world, but life. Frequently,
when rival parties and rival nations fought with one another
as to which of two opposed dogmas was the truth, they had
been arrayed against one another by more deep-seated and
vital causes, and merely inscribed at the last the dogmas on
their standards or chose them as watchwords or symbols.
We are tired of those elaborate discussions of the fine, wire-
drawn, subtle distinctions between sects, and those elabor-
ate discussions of the principles involved in heresies, and we
desire to see the real differences in life and conduct receive
more attention.
It is not difficult to show how important in practical
life was this question as to the right of Christians to be
members of social clubs. The clubs were one of the most
348 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
deep-rooted customs of Graeco-Roman society : some were
social, some political, some for mutual benefit, but all took
a religious form. New religions usually spread by means of
such clubs. The clubs bound their members closely together
in virtue of the common sacrificial meal, a scene of enjoy-
ment following on a religious ceremony. They represented
in its strongest form the pagan spirit in society ; and they
were strongest among the middle classes in the great cities,
persons who possessed at least some fair amount of money
and made some pretension to education, breeding and know-
ledge of the world. To hold aloof from the clubs was to set
oneself down as a mean-spirited, grudging, ill-conditioned
person, hostile to existing society, devoid of generous im-
pulse and kindly neighbourly feeling, an enemy of mankind.
The very fact that this subject was treated (as we have
seen) so frequently, shows that the question was not easily
decided, but long occupied the attention of the Church and
its leaders. It was almost purely a social and practical
question ; and no subject presents such difficulties to the
legislator as one which touches the fabric of society and
the ordinary conduct of life. In l Cor. (as was pointed
out in the Expositor, loc. cit., ii., p. 436) the subject, though
not formally brought before St. Paul for decision, was
practically involved in a question which was submitted
to him ; but he did not impose any absolute prohibition ;
and he tried to place the Corinthians on a higher plane
of thought so that they might see clearly all that was
involved and judge for themselves rightly.
After this the question must have frequently called for
consideration, and a certain body of teaching had been
formulated. It is clear that the Pergamenian and Thya-
tiran letters assume in the readers the knowledge of such
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 349
teaching as familiar ; and 2 Peter ii. I ff. refers to the same
formulated teaching {Expositor, loc. cit., iii., p. 106 ff.). This
teaching quoted examples from Old Testament history (es-
pecially Balaam or Sodom and Gomorrah) as a warning of
the result that must inevitably follow from laxity in this
matter; it drew scathing pictures of the revelry, licence
and intoxication of spirit which characterised the feasts of
these pagan religious societies, where from an early hour in
the afternoon the members, lounging on the dining-couches,
ate and drank and were amused by troops "of singing
and of dancing slaves " ; it argued that such periodically
recurring scenes of excitement must be fatal to all reason-
able, moderate, self-restraining spirit. The steadily growing
body of formulated moral principles on the subject was set
aside by the Nicolaitans, who taught, on the contrary (as
is said in 2 Peter, loc, cit.), that men should have confidence
in their own character and judgment, and who promised to
set them free from a hard law, while they were in reality
enticing back to lascivious enjoyment the young converts
who had barely " escaped the defilements of the world**.
The author of the letters now before us depends for his
effect on the knowledge, which he assumes his readers to
possess, of such striking pictures as that in 2 Peter of
the revels accompanying club-feasts. Such revels were not
merely condoned by pagan opinion, but were regarded as
a duty, in which graver natures ought occasionally to relax
their seriousness, and yield to the impulses of nature, in
order to return again with fresh zest to the real work of
h'fe. St. John had himself often already set before his
readers orally the contrast between that pagan spirit of lib-
erty and animalism, and the true Christian spirit ; and had
counselled the Thyatiran prophetess to wiser principles.
350 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
Thus, this controversy was of the utmost importance in
the early Church. It affected and determined, more than
any other, the relation of the new religion to the existing
forms and character of Graeco- Roman city society. The
real meaning of it was this — should the Church accept the
existing forms of society and social unions, or declare war
against them ? And this again implied another question
— should Christianity conform to the existing, accepted
principles of society, or should it force society to conform
to its principles? When the question is thus put in its
full and true implication, we see forthwith how entirely
wrong the Nicolaitans and their Thyatiran prophetess
were; we recognise that the whole future of Christianity
was at stake over this question ; and we are struck once
more with admiration at the unerring insight with which
the Apostles gauged every question that presented itself
in the complicated life of that period, and the quick sure
decision with which they seized and insisted on the essen-
tial, and neglected the accidental and secondary aspects
of the case. We can now understand why St. John con-
demns that very worthy, active, and managing, but utterly
mistaken lady of Thyatira in such hard and cruel and, one
had almost said, unfair language ; he saw that she was
fumbling about with questions which she was quite in-
capable of comprehending, full of complacent satisfaction
with her superficial views as to the fairness and reason-
ableness of allowing the poor to profit by those quite praise-
worthy associations which did so much good (though they
contained some regrettable features which might easily be
ignored by a philosophic mind), and misusing her influ-
ence, acquired by good works and persuasive speaking, to
lead her fellow-Christians astray. If she were successful,
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 351
Christianity must melt and be absorbed into the Grseco-
Roman society, highly cultivated, but over-developed, mor-
bid, unhealthy, " fast " (in modern slang). But she would
not be successful. The mind which could see the Church's
victory over the destro3^ing Empire consummated in the
death of every Christian had no fear of what the lady of
Thyatira might do, " I will kill her children (z>., her dis-
ciples and perverts) with death ; and all the Churches shall
know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts."
Probably " death " is here to be understood as " incurable
disease," according to the universal belief that disease (and
especially fever, in which there is no visible affection of
any organ) was the weapon of Divine power.
It was a hard and stern discipline, which undoubtedly
left out some of the most charming, right and lovable
sides of life and human nature ; but it may be doubted if
any less stem discipline could have availed to teach the
world as it then was and bend it to the reign of law. It
is a case similar to that of Scotland under the old Cal-
vinistic rigime, stern and hard and narrow ; but would
any milder and more lovable rule ever have been able to
tame a stubborn and self-willed race, among whom law
had never before been able to establish itself firmly?
And as to the prophetess, she had had long time to
think and to learn wisdom ; the question had been agitated
for a great many years ; but she had learned nothing and
forgotten nothing, and only clung more closely to the policy
of compromising with idolatry. Her end is expressed with
a grim irony, which was probably far more full of mean-
ing to the Thyatirans than to modem readers : there are
allusions in the passage that escape us. She should have
her last great sacrificial meal at one of those associations.
352 XXIV. The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
" I set her on a dining-couch, and her vile associates with
her, and they shall have opportunity to enjoy great — tri-
bulation : unless they repent, for she has shown that she
cannot repent."
Probably, part of the effect of this denunciation depends
on the ancient custom and usage as regards women.
Though women had in many respects a position of con-
siderable freedom in Anatolian cities, as has been pointed
out by many writers, yet it may be doubted whether ladies
of good standing took part in the club-dinners. We do not
know enough on the subject, however, to speak with any
confidence ; and can only express the belief that the status
of ladies In the Lydian cities lent point to this passage.
Possibly thus to set her down at the dinner table was
equivalent to saying that in her own life she would show
the effect of the principles which she taught others to
follow, and would sit at the revels like one of the light
women. That women were members of religious asso-
ciations (though not, apparently, in great numbers) is of
course well known ; but that is only the beginning of the
question. What was their position and rule of life ? How
far did they take part in the meal and revel that followed
the sacrifice ? To these questions an answer has yet to be
discovered.
It may be regarded as certain that the importance oi
the trade-guilds in Thyatira made the Nicolaitan doctrine
very popular there. The guilds were very numerous in that
city, and are often mentioned in great variety in the inscrip-
tions. It was, certainly, hardly possible for a tradesman
to maintain his business in Thyatira without belonging to
the guild of his trade. The guilds were corporate bodies,
taking active measures to protect the common interests,
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira 353
owning property, passing decrees, and exercising consider-
able powers ; they also, undoubtedly, were benefit societies,
and in many respects healthy and praiseworthy associations.
In no other city are they so conspicuous. It was therefore
a serious thing for a Thyatiran to cut himself off from his
guild.
To the remnant of the Thyatiran Church — those who,
while suffering the prophetess, and not showing clearly
that they " hated the works of the Nicolaitans," yet had
not actively carried out her teaching in practice — one word
was sufficient. It was enough that they should follow
the established principle, and act according to the law as
stated in the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem. No burden
beyond that was laid upon them ; but that teaching they
must obey, and that burden they must bear, until the
coming of the Lord.
Note. — A confirmation of the suggestion made on p. 352 may be found
in an inscription just published in Bulletin de Comsp. Hellen., 1904, p. 24.
A leading citizen is there recorded to have given a dinner, as part of a
religious ceremony, to all the male and female community ; and the men
dined in one temple and the women in another.
23
CHAPTER XXV. »
SARDIS : THE CITY OF DEATH.
Sardis was one of the great cities of primitive history : in
the Greek view it was long the greatest of all cities. At
the beginning of record it stands forth prominently as the
capital of a powerful empire. Its situation marks it out
as a ruling city, according to the methods of early warfare
and early kings ; it was however more like a robber's
stronghold than an abode of civilised men ; and in a peace-
ful and civilised age its position was found inconvenient.
In the Roman period it was almost like a city of the past,
a relic of the period of barbaric warfare, which lived rather
on its ancient prestige than on its suitability to present
conditions.
The great plain of the Hermus is bounded on the south
by the broad ridge of Mount Tmolus, which reaches from
the main mass of the Central Anatolian plateau like an
arm extended westwards towards the sea. In front of
the mountains stretch a series of alluvial hills, making the
transition from the level plain to the loftier ridge behind.
On one of those hills stood Sardis. The hills in this
neighbourhood are of such a character that under the in-
fluences of the atmosphere each assumes the form of a
small elongated plateau having very steep sides, terminat-
ing towards the north in a sharp point, and on the south
joined by a neck to the main mass of Tmolus. One of those
(3H)
Sardis : the City of Death 355
small elevated plateaux formed the site of the original
Sardis, an almost impregnable fortress already as it came
from the hand of nature without any artificial fortification.
Only a small city could be perched on the little plateau ;
but in the primitive time, when Sardis came into existence,
cities were small. Plate X.
It was actually inaccessible except at one point, viz.^
the neck of land on the south, which still offers the only
approach. On all other sides the rock walls were smooth,
nearly perpendicular, and absolutely unscalable even with-
out a defender (except in rare conditions described in the
sequel). The local myth expressed the facts in a religious
form by saying that the ancient Lydian King, Meles, carried
a lion, the symbol of Sardis and type of the oldest Lydian
coins, round the whole city except at one point. The story
is told by Herodotus, i., 84 ; but he (or a glossator) has
given an incorrect explanation, to the effect that Meles
thought it unnecessary to carry the lion round the southern
side of the city, because there it was precipitous. The exact
opposite was the case : the only approach to the old city
must have been from the beginning and must always be
on the south. The story is a popular explanation of the
fact that the south alone was accessible and not precipitous.
This southern approach is far from being easy. It is a
tedious and difficult climb at the present day, when the
hill-sides are overgrown with thorns, and only a sheep-track
exists in place of a path. Even when the summit was
inhabited and a carefully made road led up to the southern
gates, the approach must have been long and steep by a
winding road, which could be defended with perfect CcLse.
The plateau is fully 1,500 feet above the plain, from which
its sides rise perpendicularly.
356 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
This small city on its lofty plateau was an ideal strong-
hold for a prince of primitive times. It was large enough
for his needs ; it could be easily fortified and defended at
the only point where fortification or defence was needed.
It was like a watch-tower overlooking the whole of the
great plain. That primitive capital of the Hermus Valley
seems to have been called, not Sardis (which was a plural
noun), but Hyde ; and it is mentioned by Homer under
that name. Plate XI.
In this we part company from the guide whom usually
we follow with such implicit confidence, Strabo. He con-
siders that Sardis was founded later than the time of
Homer, because it is not named by him. We must, how-
ever, consider Sardis as coaeval with the beginnings of the
Lydian kingdom, about 1,200 B.C. It was the princely
capital from the time that there began to be princes in
Lydia. Nature has made it the overseer of the Hermus
Valley ; and its foundation marked out its master for the
headship first of that valley, and thereafter of the rest of
Lydia, whose fate was dependent on the Hermus Valley.
As civilisation and government grew more complex, and
commerce and society were organised on a greater scale, the
lofty plateau proved too small for the capital of an empire ;
and a lower city was built on the west and north sides of
the original city, and probably also on the east side.
The old city was now used as an acropolis, and is so called
by Herodotus. The new city was very distinctly separated
from the old by the great difference of level and by the
long, steep, and difficult approach at the southern end of
the old city. Hence the double city was called by the
plural noun, Sardeis, like Athenai and various others.
The lower city lay chiefly on the west side, in a glen be-
Sardis : the City of Death 357
tween the acropolis-hill and the little river Pactolus, which
flows northwards out of Mount Tmolus to join the Hermus.
The wealth of the Lydian kings, ruling in Sardis, which
arose from trade, a fertile territory carefully cultivated, and
the commerce of the East, was explained in popular Greek
legend as due to the golden sands of the Pactolus. Whether
this was a pure fable, or only an exaggeration, must be left
uncertain. There was no gold in the Pactolus during the
Roman period, nor is there any now ; but it is said to be
possible that the river, having in earlier time traversed an
auriferous area, might have cut for itself a path below the
level of the gold-bearing rock, and thus ceased to bring down
golden sand. No auriferous rock, however, is now known
to exist in the mountains of Tmolus ; though, of course, no
proper search has been made in recent centuries.
As the capital of the great kingdom of Lydia, Sardis had
a history marked by frequent wars. In it the whole policy
of a warlike kingdom was focussed. To fight against Lydia
was to fight against Sardis. The master of Sardis was the
master of Lydia. Thus in early centuries Sardis stood forth
pre-eminent in the view of the Greek cities as the Oriental
enemy on whose action their fate depended. They were
most of them involved in war with Sardis, and fell one by
one beneath its power. It was the great, the wealthy, the
impregnable city, against which none could strive and pre-
vail. In the immemorial contest between Asia and Europe,
it represented Asia, and the Greek colonies of the coast-lands
stood for Europe. Sardis was the one great enemy of the
Ionian cities . it learned from them, taught them, and con-
quered them all in succession. Among an impressionable
people like the Greeks, such a reputation lived long ; and
Sardis was to their mind fully justified in inscribing on its
358 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
coins the proud title, " Sardis the First Metropolis of Asia,
and of Lydia, and of Hellenism," as in Fig. 9, p. 139, The
Hellenism which found its metropolis in Sardis was not
the ancient Greek spirit, but the new form which the Greek
spirit had taken in its attempt to conquer Asia, profoundly
modifying Asia, and itself profoundly modified in the pro-
cess. Hellenism in this sense was not a racial fact, but a
general type of aspiration and aims, implying a certain
freedom in development of the individual consciousness and
in social and political organisation. The term summed up
the character of " the Hellenes in Asia," i.e., the Hellenised
population of Asia (on which see pp. 1 16, 128 fif.).
The destruction of the powerful kingdom, and the capture
of the impregnable city, by a hitherto hardly known and
utterly despised enemy, was announced to the Greek cities
soon after the middle of the sixth century B.C. The news
came almost without preparation, and was all the more
impressive on that account. To the student of the past it
seems still to echo through history, as one of the most
startling and astonishing reverses of all time. To the
Greeks it was unique in character and effect. It was known
that the Lydian king had consulted the Delphic Apollo
before he entered on the war, and that he had begun opera-
tions with full confidence of victory, relying on the promise
of the god. The Greek mind loved to dwell on this topic,
and elaborated it with creative fancy, so that the truth is
almost hidden under the embellishing details in the pages
of Herodotus. But all the details have only the effect (as
was their intention) of making more clear and impressive
the moral lesson. To avoid over-confidence in self, to guard
against pride and arrogance, not to despise one's enemy, to
bear always in mind the slipperiness and deceitfulness of
Sardis : the City of Death 359
fortune — such was the greatest part of true wisdom, as the
Greeks understood it ; and nowhere could the lesson be found
written in plainer and larger letters than in the fall of Sardis.
According to the story as thus worked up by Greek
imagination, Croesus the king had been vainly warned by
the wise Greek, Solon the law-giver, when he visited Sardis,
to beware of self-satisfaction and to regard no man as
really happy, until the end of life had set him free from the
danger of a sudden reverse. In preparing for his last war,
Croesus employed all possible precaution ; he was thoroughly
on his guard against any possible error ; and he took the
gods themselves as his counsellors and helpers. He had
tried and tested all the principal prophetic centres of the
Greek world ; and the Delphic Oracle alone had passed the
test, and won his confidence.
He then asked about the war against Cyrus, which he
had in mind ; and he heard with delight that, if he crossed
the Halys, he would destroy a mighty Empire. He crossed
the Halys, and received a crushing defeat. But it was only
a first army that had met this disaster. He returned to
prepare a greater army for the ensuing year. Cyrus fol-
lowed him up with disconcerting rapidity ; and besieged
him in Sardis, before any new levies were ready. The
great king, safe in his impregnable fortress, regarded this
as an incident annoying in itself, but only the beginning
of destruction for the rash enemy. The armies of Lydia
were being massed to crush the insolent invader, who
should be ground between the perpendicular rocks of the
acropolis and the gathering Lydian hosts. Such was the
calculation of Croesus, when he retired one evening to rest :
he was wakened to find that the enemy was master of the
acropolis and that all was lost.
360 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
The rock of the acropolis is a coarse and friable con-
glomerate, which melts away gradually under the influences
of the atmosphere. It always preserves an almost perpen-
dicular face, but at times an oblique crack develops in
the rock-wall, and permits a bold climber to work his
way up. Such a weak point betrayed Sardis.
According to the popular tale this weak point existed
from the beginning of history in Sardis, because, when
the divine consecration and encompassing of the new
fortress had been made at its foundation, this point had
been omitted ; thus the tale would imply that the weak
point was known to the defenders and through mere ob-
stinate folly left unguarded by them. But such a legend
is usually a growth after the fact. The crumbling character
of the rock on which the upper city of Sardis stood shows
what the real facts must have been. In the course of time
a weakness had developed at • one point Through want of
proper care in surveying and repairing the fortifications,
this weakness had remained unobserved and unknown to
the defenders ; but the assailants, scrutinising every inch
of the walls of the great fortress in search of an opportu-
nity, noticed it and availed themselves of it to climb up,
one at a time. On such a lofty hill, rising fully 1,500 feet
above the plain, whose sides are, and must from their
nature always have been, steep and straight and practically
perpendicular, a child could guard against an army ; even
a small stone dropped on the head of the most skilful
mountain-climber, would inevitably hurl him down. An
attack made by this path could succeed only if the assailants
climbed up entirely unobserved ; and they could not escape
obsei-vation unless they made the attempt by night. Hence,
even though this be unrecorded, a night attack must have
Sardis : the City of Death 361
been the way by which Cyrus entered Sardis. He came
upon the great city " Hke a thief in the night ".
It is right, however, to add that the account that we
have given of the way in which Sardis was captured differs
from the current opinion in one point. The usual view
is that Cyrus entered Sardis by the isthmus or neck on
the south. That was the natural and necessary path in
ordinary use ; the only road and gateway were there ; and
inevitably the defence of the city was based on a careful
guard and strong fortification at the solitary approach. The
enemy was expected to attack there ; but the point of the
tale is that the ascent was made on a side where no guard
was ever stationed, because that side was believed to be
inaccessible. The misapprehension is as old as the time
of Herodotus (or rather of some old Greek glossator, who
has interposed a false explanation in the otherwise clear
narrative). The character of the rock shows that this
opinion — current already among the Greeks — is founded
on a confusion between the one regular approach, where
alone attack was expected and guarded against, and the
accidental, unobserved, unguarded weak point, which had
developed through the disintegration of the rock.
There can be no doubt that the isthmus, as being the
solitary regular approach, must always have been the most
strongly fortified part At present the plateau is said not
to be accessible at any other point except where the isthmus
touches it ; but there are several chinks and clefts leading
up the north and west faces,^ and it is probable that by
one of them a bold and practised climber could make his
way up. These clefts vary in character from century to
century as the surface disintegrates ; and all of them would
always be regarded by the ordinary peaceful and unathletic
362 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
oriental citizen as inaccessible. But from time to time
sometimes one, sometimes another, would offer a chance
to a daring mountaineer. By such an approach it must
have been that Cyrus captured the city.
History repeated itself. The same thing happened about
320 years later, when Antiochus the Great captured Sardis
through the exploit of Lagoras (who had learned surefooted-
ness on the precipitous mountains of his native Crete). Once
more the garrison in careless confidence were content to
guard the one known approach, and left the rest of the
circuit unguarded, under the belief that it could not be
scaled.
The Sardian religion was the fullest expression of the
character and spirit of the city ; but it has not yet been
properly understood. The coins show several remarkable
scenes of a religious kind, evidently of purely local origin
and different from any subjects otherwise known in hieratic
mythology ; but they remain unexplained and unintelligible.
The explanation of them, if it could be discovered, would
probably illuminate the peculiar character of the local re-
ligion ; but in the meantime, although various other deities
besides Cybele and Kora-Persephone appear on the coins,
and although abundant archaeological details might be de-
scribed, no unifying idea can be detected, which might show
how the Sardians had modified, and put their own individual
character into, the general Anatolian religious forms.
The general Anatolian temper of religion is summarised
in the following words (taken from the Cities and Bishop-
rics of Phfygia, i., p. 87) : " Its essence lies in the adora-
tion of the life of Nature — that life subject apparently
to death, yet never dying but reproducing itself in new
forms, different and yet the same. This perpetual self-
Sardis : the City of Death 363
identity under varying forms, this annihilation of death
through the power of self-reproduction, was the object of
an enthusiastic worship, characterised by remarkable self-
abandonment and immersion in the divine, by a mixture
of obscene symbolism and sublime truths, by negation of
the moral distinctions and family ties that exist in a more
developed society, but do not exist in the free life of
Nature. The mystery of self-reproduction, of eternal unity
amid temporary diversity, is the key to explain all the
repulsive legends and ceremonies that cluster round that
worship, and all the manifold manifestations or diverse
embodiments of the ultimate single divine life that are
carved on the rocks of Asia Minor."
The patron deity of the city was Cybele, two columns of
whose temple still protrude from the ground near the banks
of the Pactolus, as shown in Plate XI. She was a goddess
of the regular Anatolian type ; and her general character is
well known.
But the specialised character of the Sardian goddess
Cybele, the qualities and attributes which she gathered
from the local conditions and from the ideas and manners
of the population, are unknown, and can hardly even be
guessed at for lack of evidence. To the Greek mind the
Sardian Cybele seemed more like the Maiden Proserpine
than the Mother Demeter ; and the coins of the city often
show scenes from the myth of Proserpine. For example,
the reverse of the coin in Fig. 9, p. 139, shows the
familiar scene of Pluto carrying off Proserpine on his
four-horse car.
The strange and uncouth idol, under whose form the
goddess was worshipped, often appears on coins ; and
in alliance-coins Sardis is often symbolised by this gro-
364 XXV. Sai^dis : the City of Death
tesque figure, whose half-human appearance is quite of the
Anatoh'an type. Thus Fig. 30 shows an " alliance " or re-
ligious agreement between Ephesus, represented by Artemis
in her usual idol with her stags at her side, and Sardis,
symbolised by the curious veiled image of her own goddess
(whom numismatists usually call in Hellenising style Kora
or Persephone),
The Sardian goddess was the mother of her people.
She dwelt with nature, in the mountains of Tmolus and
in the low ground by the sacred lake of Koloe, on the
FiQ. 30. — The Alliance of Ephesus and Sardis.
north side of the Plermus. Here by the lal<e was the
principal necropolis of Sardis, at a distance of six or eight
miles from the city, across a broad river — a remarkable fact,
which points to some ancient historical relation between
Sardis and Koloe (implying perhaps that the people of
Koloe had been moved to found the original city of Sardis).
Here the people of the goddess returned at death to lie
close to the wild sedge-encircled home of the mother who
bore them.
The Hon, as type of the oldest Lydian coins, was cer*
Sardis : the City of Death 365
tainly adopted, because it was the favourite animal and the
symbol of the Sardian goddess. The Anatolian goddess,
when envisaged in the form of Cybele, was regularly associ-
ated with a pair of lions or a single lion.
Healing power was everywhere attributed to the local
embodiment of the divine idea, but in Sardis it was with
exceptional emphasis magnified into the power of restoring
life to the dead. It was, doubtless, associated specially with
certain hot springs, situated about two miles from Sardis
in the front hills of Tmolus, which are still much used and
famous for their curative effect. As the hot springs are
the plain manifestation of the divine subterranean power,
the god of the underworld plays a considerable part in the
religious legend of the district. He appeared to claim
and carry off as his bride the patron-goddess of the city,
in the form of Kora-Persephone, as she was gathering the
golden flower, the flower of Zeus, in the meadows near the
springs ; the games celebrated in her honour were called
Chrysanthia ; and it may be confidently inferred that crowns
of the flower called by that name were worn by her wor-
shippers. The name of " Zeus's flower " also is mentioned
on the coins.
Zeus Lydios is often named on Sardian coins, embodying
the claim of the city to stand for the whole country of Lydia
as its capital. He is represented exactly like the god of
Laodicea (Fig, 35, p. 418), a standing figure, wearing a
tunic and an over-garment, resting his left hand on the
sceptre, and holding forth the eagle on his right hand.
Sardis suffered greatly from an earthquake in A.D. 17,
and was treated with special liberality by the Emperor
Tiberius : he remitted all its taxation for five years, and gave
it a donation of ten million sesterces (about ;^400,ooo). In
366 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
Fig. 31, taken from a coin struck by the grateful city, the
veiled genius of Sardis is shown kneeling on one knee in
supplication before the Emperor, who is dressed in the toga,
the garb of peace, and graciously stretches forth his hand
towards her. The coin bears the name of Caesareian
Sardis: for the city took the epithet in honour of the
Imperial benefactor and retained it on coins for quite a
year after his death, and in inscriptions for as long as ten
or fifteen years after his death.
The reverse of the same coin shows the Imperial mother,
Fig. 31. — Caesareian Sardis a suppliant to the Emperor Tiberius.
the deified Empress Livia, sitting like a goddess after the
fashion of Demeter, holding in her left hand three corn-
ears, the gift of the goddess to mankind, and resting her
right hand high on the sceptre. This type is a good ex-
ample of the tendency to fuse the Imperial religion with
the local worship, and to regard the Imperial gods as
manifestations and incarnations on earth of the divine
figure worshipped in the district. Livia here appears in
the character of Demeter, a Hellenised form of the Ana-
tolian goddess.
Sardis : the City of Death
2,^7
The assumption of the epithet Caesareia was doubtless
connected with the erection of a temple in honour of
Tiberius and Livia, as the divine pair in the common form
of the mother goddess and her god-son. But there is no
reason to think that this was a Provincial temple (which
would carry with it for the city the title of Temple- Warden).
It was only a Sardian temple, and seems to have been suffered
to fall into decay soon after the death of the Imperial god.
It is plain that the greatness of Sardis under the Roman
rule was rooted in past history, not in present conditions.
Fig. 32. — The Empress Livia as the goddess who gives corn and plenty
to Sardis.
The acropolis ceased during that period to be the true city;
it was inconvenient and useless ; and it was doubtless re-
garded as a historical and archaeological monument, rather
than a really important part of the living city. Apart from
the acropolis there is nothing in the situation of Sardis to
make it a great centre of society, and it has long ceased to
be inhabited. The chief town of the district is now Salikli,
about five miles to the east, in a similar position at the foot
of Tmolus, but more conveniently situated for travellers
and trade.
368 XXV. Sardis : the City of Death
Thus, when the Seven Letters were written, Sardis was a
city of the past, which had no future before it. Its great-
ness was connected with a barbarous and half-organised
state of society, and could not survive permanently in a
more civilised age. Sardis must inevitably decay. Only
when civilisation was swept out of the Hermus Valley in
fire and bloodshed by the destroying Turks, and the age of
barbarism was re-introduced, did Sardis again become an
advantageous site. The acropolis was restored as a fortress
of the kind suited for that long period of uncertainty and
war which ended in the complete triumph of Moham-
medanism and the practical extermination of the Christian
population (save at Philadelphia and Magnesia) throughout
the Hermus Valley.
Sardis occupied a high position in the Byzantine hierarchy.
It was the capital of the Province Lydia, instituted about
A.D. 295, and the Bishop of Sardis was Metropolitan and
Archbishop of Lydia, and sixth in order of dignity of all
the bishops, whether Asiatic or European, that were subject
to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN SARDIS.
These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven
stars :
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art
dead. Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were
ready to die : for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before my God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear ; and keep it,
and repent. If therefore thou shall not watch, I will come as a thief, and
thou shall not know what hour 1 will come upon thee. But thou hast a few
names in Sardis which did not defile their garments : and they shall walk
with me in white ; for they are worthy.
He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments ; and I will
in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name
before my Father, and before his angels.
He that hath an ear^ let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
The analogy between the Ephesian and Sardian letters is
close, and the two have to be studied together. History
had moved on similar lines with the two Churches. Both
had begun enthusiastically and cooled down. Degeneration
was the fact in both ; but in Ephesus the degeneration had
not yet become so serious as in Sardis. Hence in the
Ephesian letters the keynote is merely change, instability
and uncertainty ; in the Sardian letter the keynote is de-
gradation, false pretension and death.
In those two letters the exordium takes a very similar
form. To the Ephesian Church "these things saith
he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he
that walketh between the seven golden lamps". To the
24 (369)
370 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
Sardian Church the letter proceeds from him " that hath
the seven spirits of God and the seven stars ". The sender
of both letters stands forth as the centre, the pivot and the
director of the Universal Church, and in particular of the
entire group of the Asian Churches, Effective power exer-
cised over the whole Church is indicated emphatically in
both cases, and especially in the Sardian address. " The
Seven Spirits of God" must certainly be taken as a sym-
bolic or allegorical way of expressing the full range of
exercise of the Divine power in the Seven Churches, i.e.^
in the Universal Church as represented here by the Asian
Churches. If one may try in inadequate and rough terms
to express the meaning, the " Spirit of God " is to be under-
stood as the power of God exerting itself practically in the
Church ; and, since the Church is always regarded in the
Revelation as consisting of Seven parts or local Churches,
the power of God is described in its relation to those Seven
parts as " the Seven Spirits of God".
This indirect way of expression is liable to become mis-
leading, if it be not carefully interpreted and sympathetically
understood. It is forced on the writer by the plan of his
work, which does not aim at philosophic exposition, but
attempts to shadow forth through sensuous imagery "the
deep things of God," in the style of the Jewish literary form
which he chose to imitate.
Under the phraseology, " the Seven Spirits of God" the
writer of the Revelation conceals a statement of the great
problem : " how does the Divine power make itself effective
in regard to the world and mankind, when it is entirely
different in nature and character from the ordinary world
of human experience ? How can a thing act on another
which is wholly different in nature, and lies on a different
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 371
plane of existence ? " The Divine power has to go forth,
as it were, out of itself in order to reach mankind. The
writer had evidently been occupying himself with this
problem ; and, as we see, the book of the Revelation is
a vague and dim expression of the whole range of this
and the associated problems regarding the relation of God
to man. But the book is not to be taken as a solution of
the problems. It is the work of a man who has not
reached an answer, i.e.^ who has not yet succeeded in
expressing the question in philosophic form, but who is
struggling to body forth the problems before himself and
his readers in such imagery as may make them more con-
ceivable.
The most serious error in regard to the book of the
Revelation consists in regarding it as a statement of the
solution. No solution is reached in the book ; but the
writer's aim is to convey to his readers his own perfect
confidence that the Divine nature is effective on human
nature and on the world of sense, all-powerful, absolutely
victorious in this apparent contest with evil or anti-Christ •
that in fact there is not really any contest, for the victory
is gained in the inception of the conflict, and the seeming
struggle is only the means whereby the Divine power offers
to man the opportunity of learning to understand its nature.
The Spirit of God, and still more " the Seven Spirits of
God" are therefore not to be understood as a description of
the method by which the Divine activity exerts itself in its
relation to the Church ; for, if looked at so, they are easily
perverted and elaborated into a theory of intermediate
powers intervening between God and the world, and thus
there must arise the whole system of angels (which in
human nature, as ideas and customs then tended, inevitably
372 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardu
degenerated into a worship of angels, according to Colos-
sians ii. i8 ; just as a few centuries later the respect for
the saints and martyrs of the Church degenerated into a
worship of them as powers intervening between man and
the remote ultimate Divine nature). The " Seven Spirits"
form simply an expression suited to reach the compre-
hension of men at that time, and make them image to
themselves the activity of God in relation to the Seven
Churches, and to the whole Universal Church. That this
is a successful attempt to present the problem to human
apprehension cannot be maintained. The book is the first
attempt of a writer struggling to express great ideas ; but
the ideas have not yet been thought out clearly in his mind
and he has been led away to imitate a rather crude model
fashionable in Jewish circles at the time. He has reached
an infinitely higher level, alike in a literary and a religious
view, than any other work of that class known to us ; but
an ineradicable fault clings to the whole class.
The Church of Sardis, then, is addressed by Him who
controls and directs the Divine action in the Churches as
they exist in the world, and who holds in His hand the
Seven Churches, with their history and their destiny. This
expression of His power is varied from that which occurs
in the address of the Ephesian letter, of course in a way
suited to the Sardian Church, though it is not easy for us
to comprehend wherein lies the precise suitability. As
everywhere throughout this study, we can hardly hope to
do more than reach a statement of the difficulties and the
problems, though often a clear statement of the question
involves the suggestion of a reply (and in so far as it does
this it involves personal opinion and hypothesis, and is liable
to fell into subjectivity and error).
The Letter to the Church in Sardis '^^'j^^
We observed the peculiar suitability of the Ephesian
address to the situation of Ephesus as the centre and
practical leader of the whole group of Asian Churches.
Hence the final detail in that address — " He that walketh
in the midst of the seven golden lamps " ; for (as is shown
in chapter vi.) the lamps symbolise the Churches on earth,
as the seven Stars symbolise the seven Churches, or their
spiritual counterparts, in heaven. Instead of this the Sardian
address introduces "//z^ Seven Spirits of God". A more
explicit and definite expression of the activity of the Divine
nature in the Churches on earth evidently recommended
itself as suitable in addressing the Sardian Church.
One cannot evade the question, what is the reason why
this expression commended itself for the Sardian letter?
wherein lies its suitability? To answer the question, it is
obviously necessary to look at the prominent point of
difference between Sardis and Ephesus (which we have
already stated). Ephesus had changed and cooled, but the
degeneration had not yet become serious ; restoration of
its old character and enthusiasm was still possible. As a
Church Ephesus might possibly be in the future as great as
it had been in the past. But the Church of Sardis was
already dead, though it seemed to be living. Its history
was past and done with. A revivification of its former self
was impossible. There remained only a few in it for whom
there was some hope. They might survive, as they had
hitherto shown themselves worthy. And they shall sur-
vive, for the power which has hitherto sustained them will
be with them and keep them to the end. In this scanty
remnant saved from the wreck of the formerly great Church
of Sardis, the Divine power will show itself all the more
conspicuous. Just as in the comparatively humble city of
374 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
Thyatira the faithful few shall be granted a strength and
authority beyond that of the Empire and its armies, so in
this small remnant at Sardis the Divine power will be most
effective, because they stand most in need of it.
It is not to b:; imagined that this consideration exhausts
the case. There remains much more that is at present
beyond our ken. The more we can learn about Sardis, the
better we shall understand the letter.
In none of the Seven Letters is the method of the writer,
and the reason that guided him in selecting the topics, more
clearly displayed than in the letter to the Church in Sardis.
The advice which he gives to the Sardians is, in a way,
universally suitable to human nature : " Be watchful ; be
more careful ; carry out more completely and thoroughly
what you have still to do, for hitherto you have always
erred in leaving work half done and incomplete. Try to
make that eager attention with which you at the beginning
listened to the Gospel, and the enthusiasm with which at
first you accepted it, a permanent feature in your conduct.
If you are not watchful, you will not be ready at the
moment of need : my arrival will find }'OU unprepared,
because ^ in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man
cometh ' ; any one can make ready for a fixed hour, but you
must be always ready for an unexpected hour."
Advice like that is, in a sense, universal. All persons,
every individual man and every body of men, constantly
require the advice to be watchful, and to carry through to
completion what they once enter upon, for all men tend
more or less to slacken in their exertions and to leave half-
finished ends of work. In all men there is observable a
discrepancy between promise and performance ; the first
show is almost always superior to the final result.
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 375
But why are these precise topics selected for the Sardian
letter, and not for any of the others ? Why does the refer-
ence to the thief in the night suggest itself in this letter
and not in any other ? It is plain that Ephesus was suffer-
ing from the same tendency to growing slackness as Sardis,
and that its first enthusiasm had cooled down almost as
lamentably as was the case in the Sardian Church. Yet
the advice to Ephesus, though like in many respects, is
expressed in very different words.
But in almost every letter similar questions suggest them-
selves. There were faithful Christians in every one of the
Churches ; but the word " faithful " is used only of Smyrna.
Every Church was brought into the same conflict with the
Roman State; but only in the Pergamenian letter is the
opposition between the Church and the Empire expressly
mentioned, and only in the Thyatiran letter is the superi-
ority in strength and might of the Church over the Empire
emphasised.
In the Sardian letter the reason is unusually clear ; and
to this point our attention must now be especially directed.
No city in the whole Province of Asia had a more
splendid history in past ages than Sardis. No city of Asia
at that time showed such a melancholy contrast between
past splendour and present decay as Sardis. Its history
was the exact opposite of the record of Smyrna. Smyrna
was dead and yet lived. Sardis lived and yet was dead.
Sardis was the great city of ancient times and of half-
historical legend. At the beginning of the Greek memory
of history in Lydia, Sardis stood out conspicuous and alone
as the capital of the great Oriental Empire with which the
Greek cities and colonies were brought in contact. Their
relations with it formed the one great question of foreign
376 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
politics for those early Greek settlers. Everything else was
secondary, or was under their own control, but in regard
to Sardis they had always to be thinking of foreign wishes,
foreign rights, the caprice of a foreign monarch and the
convenience of foreign traders, who were too powerful to
be disregarded or treated with disrespect.
That ancient and deep impression the Asiatic Greeks,
with their tenacious historical memory, never entirely lost.
Sardis was always to them the capital where Croesus,
richest of kings, had ruled — the city which Solon, wisest of
men, had visited, and where he had rightly augured ruin
because he had rightly mistrusted material wealth and
luxury as necessarily hollow and treacherous- — the fortress
of many warlike kings, like Gyges, whose power was so
great that legend credited him with the possession of the
gold ring of supernatural power, or Alyattes, whose vast
tomb rose like a mountain above the Hermus Valley beside
the sacred lake of the Mother Goddess.
But to those Greeks of the coast colonies, Ephesus and
Smyrna and the rest, Sardis was also the city of failure,
the city whose history was marked by the ruin of great
kings and the downfall of great military strength, apparently
in mid-career, when it seemed to be at its highest develop-
ment. It was the city whose history conspicuously and
pre-eminently blazoned forth the uncertainty of human
fortunes, the weakness of human strength, and the short-
ness of the step that separates over-confident might from
sudden and irreparable disaster. It was the city whose
name was almost synonymous with pretensions unjustified,
promise unfulfilled, appearance without reality, confidence
that heralded ruin. Reputed an impregnable fortress, it
had repeatedly fallen short of its reputation, and ruined
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 377
those who trusted in it Crcesus had fancied he could sit
safe in the great fortress, but his enemy advanced straight
upon it and carried it by assault before the strength of the
Lydian land was collected.
Carelessness and failure to keep proper watch, arising
from over-confidence in the apparent strength of the fortress,
had been the cause of this disaster, which ruined the dynasty
and brought to an end the Lydian Empire and the domin-
ance of Sardis. The walls and gates were all as strong as
art and nature combined could make them. The hill on
which the upper city stood was steep and lofty. The one
approach to the upper city was too carefully fortified to
offer any chance to an assailant. But there was one weak
point : in one place it was possible for an active enemy to
make his way up the perpendicular sides of the lofty hill,
if the defenders stood idle and permitted him to climb
unhindered.
The sudden ruin of that great Empire and the wealthiest
king of all the world was an event of that character which
most impressed the Greek mind, emphasising a moral
lesson by a great national disaster. A little carelessness
was shown ; a watchman was wanting at the necessary
point, or a sentinel slept at his post for an hour ; and the
greatest power on the earth was hurled to destruction.
The great king trusted to Sardis, and Sardis failed him at
the critical moment. Promise was unfulfilled ; the appear-
ance of strength proved the mask of weakness ; the fortifi-
cation was incomplete ; work which had been begun with
great energy was not pushed through to its conclusion with
the same determination.
More than three centuries later another case of exactly
the same kind occurred. Achaeus and Antiochus the Great
378 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
were fighting for the command of Lydia and the whole
Seleucid Empire. Antiochus besieged his rival in Sardis,
and the city again was captured by a surprise of the same
nature : a Cretan mercenary led the way, climbing up the
hill and stealing unobserved within the fortifications. The
lesson of old days had not been learned ; experience had
been forgotten ; men were too slack and careless ; and
when the moment of need came, Sardis was unprepared.
A State cannot survive which is guarded with such care-
lessness ; a people at once so slack and so confident cannot
continue an imperial power. Sardis, as a great and ruling
city, was dead. It had sunk to be a second-rate city in a
Province. Yet it still retained the name and the historical
memory of a capital city. It had great pretensions, which
it had vainly tried to establish in A.D. 26 before the tribunal
of the Roman Senate in the contention among the Asian
cities recorded by Tacitus, Annals, iv., 55. When in that
year the Asian States in the provincial Council (called the
Commune of Asia) resolved to erect a temple to Tiberius
and Livia his mother and the Senate, as a token of gratitude
for the punishment of an oppressive and grasping admin-
istrator, eleven cities of the Province contended for the
honour of being the seat of the Temple. Nine were quickly
set aside, some as too unimportant, Pergamum as already
the seat of a Temple to Augustus, Ephesus and Miletus as
taken up with the ritual of Artemis and of Apollo; but
there was much hesitation between the claims of Smyrna
and of Sardis. Envoys of Sardis pleaded the cause of
their city before the Senate. They rested their claim on
the mythical or historical glory of the city as the capital
of the Lydians, who were a sister-race to the Etruscans,
and had sent colonists to the Peloponnesus, and as hon-
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 379
oured by letters from Roman generals and by a special
treaty which Rome had concluded with Sardis in 171-168
B.C. : in conclusion, they boasted of the rivers, the climate,
and the rich territory around the city. The case, however,
was decided in favour of Smyrna.
No one can doubt that this Sardian letter took its form
in part through the memory of that ancient history. It
was impossible for the Sirdians to miss the allusion, and
therefore the writer must have intended it and calculated
on it. Phrase after phrase is chosen for the evident pur-
pose of recalling that ancient memory, which was undoubt-
edly still strong and living among the Sardians, for the
Hellenic cities had a retentive historical recollection, and
we know that Sardis, in the great pleading in A.D. 26,
rested its case on a careful selection of facts from its past
history, though omitting the facts on which we have here
laid stress, because they were not favourable to its argument.
" / know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest,
and thou art dead. Be thou watchful, and stablish the things
that remain, which were ready to die : for I have found no
works of thine fulfilled before my God. . . . If therefore thou
shall not watch, I will covie as a thief and thou shall not
know what hour I will come upon thee."
It seems therefore undeniable that the writer has selected
topics which rise out of and stand in close relation to the
past history of Sardis as a city. In view of this evident
plan and guiding purpose, are we to understand that he
preferred the older historical reference, and left aside the
actual fortunes of the Church as secondary, when he was
sketching out the order of his letter ? Such a supposition
is impossible. The writer is in those words drawing a
picture of the history and degeneration of the Sardian
380 XXVI. The Letter to the Chttrck in Sardis
Church ; but he draws it in such a way as to set before his
readers the continuity of Sardian history. The story of
the Church is a repetition of past experience ; the character
of the people remains unchanged ; their faults are still the
same ; and their fate must be the same.
If this view be correct — and it seems forced on us un-
avoidably by the facts of the case — then another inference
must inevitably follow: the writer, so far from separating
the Church of Sardis from the city of Sardis, emphasises
strongly the closeness of the connection between them.
The Church of Sardis is not merely in the city of Sardis, it
is in a sense the city ; and the Christians are the people of
the city. There is not in his mind the slightest idea that
Christians are to keep out of the world — as might perhaps
be suggested from a too exclusive contemplation of some
parts of the Revelation ; the Church here is addressed,
apparently with the set purpose of suggesting that the
fortunes of ancient Sardis had been its own fortunes, that
it had endured those sieges, committed those faults of care-
lessness and blind confidence, and sunk into the same decay
and death as the city.
That this is intentional and deliberate cannot be ques-
tioned for a moment. What this writer said he meant.
There is no accident or unintended significance in those
carefully chosen and well-weighed words. In regard to
this letter the same reflections arise as were already sug-
gested in the case of the other letters, and especially the
Smyrnaean and Pergamenian. In his conflict with the
Nicolaitans the writer was never betrayed into mere blind
opposition to them ; he never rejected their views from
mere hatred of those who held them ; he took the wider
view which embraced everything that was right and true
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 381
in the principles of the Nicolaitans — and there was a good
deal that was rightly thought and well said by them —
together with a whole world of thought which they had
no eyes to see. In the Seven Letters he repeatedly gives
marked emphasis to the principle, which the Nicolaitans
rightly maintained, that the Christians should be a force
in the world, moulding it gradually to a Christian model.
Here and everywhere throughout the Letters the writer
is found to be reiterating one thought, " See how much
better the true eternal Church does everything than any
of the false pretenders and opponents can do them ".
In regard to one detail after another he points out how
far superior is the Christian form to that in which it is
tendered by the Imperial State, by the cities, or by false
teachers. If Laodicea clothes its citizens with the glossy
black woollen garments of its famous industry, he offers
white garments to clothe the true Laodiceans. If the State
has its mighty military strength and its imperial authority,
he points out to the true remnant among the Thyatirans
that a more crushing and irresistible might shall be placed
in their hands, and offers to the Pergamenian victors a
wider authority over worlds seen and unseen. If the
Nicolaitans emphasise the intimate relation between the
life of the Church and the organisation of the State and
the society amid which the Church exists, he states with
equal emphasis, but with the proper additions, that the
Church is so closely connected with the State and the
City that it can be regarded as sharing in a way their life,
fortunes and powers.
It is not fanciful to trace here, as in other cases, a con-
nection between the spirit of the advice tendered and the
permanent features of nature amid which the city stood and
382 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
by which it was insensibly moulded. Sardis stood, or rather
the upper an 1 the only fortified city stood, on a lofty hill,
a spur projecting north from Mount Tmolus and dominating
the Hermus Valley. Ti.e hill has still, in its dilapidated
and diminished extent, an imposing appearance ; but it
undoubtedly offered a far more splendid show two or
three thousand years ago, when the top must have been
a high plateau of moderate extent, the sides of which
were almost perpendicular walls of rock, except where a
narrow isthmus connected the hill with the mountains
behind it on the south. Towards the plain on the north,
towards the glens on east and west, it presented the most
imposing show, a city with walls and towers, temples, houses
and palaces, filling the elevated plateau so completely that
on all sides it looked as if one could drop a stone i,5CXD feet
straight into the plain from the outer buildings.
The rock, however, on which Sardis was built was only
nominally a rock. In reality, as you go nearer it, you see
that it is only mud slightly compacted, and easily dissolved
by rain. It is, however, so constituted that it wears away
with a very steep, almost perpendicular face ; but rain and
frost continually diminish it, so that little now remains of
the upper plateau on which the city stood ; and in one place
the top has been worn to an extremely narrow neck
with steep descents of the usual kind on both sides, so that
the visitor needs a fairly cool head and steady nerve to walk
across it. The isthmus connecting the plateau with the
mountains of Tmolus on the south has been worn away in
a lesser degree.
The crumbling, poor character of the rock must always
have been a feature that impressed the thinking mind, and
led it to associate the character of the inhabitants with this
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 383
feature of the situation. Instability, untrustworthiness, inef-
ficiency, deterioration — such is the impression that the rock
gives, and such was the character of Sardian history and
of the Sardian Church.
But Sardis was not entirely degenerate and unworthy.
Even in it there were a few persons who maintained their
Christian character and ^^ did not defile their garments*'.
This strong expression shows wherein lay the guilt of
Sardis. It was different essentially from the fault of Thy-
atira, the city which comes next to Sardis in the severity
of its condemnation. Thyatira was in many ways distin-
guished by excellence of conduct, and the corporate life of
its Church was vigorous and improving, so that its ** last
works were more than the first " ; but a false theory of
life and a false conception of what was right action were
leading it astray. Sardis was not Christian enough to
entertain a heresy or be led astray by a false system ;
it had lost all vigour and life, and had sunk back to the
ordinary pagan level of conduct, which from the Christian
point of view was essentially vicious and immoral in
principle.
The Sardian Church fell under the condemnation pro-
nounced by St. Paul (i Cor. v. 10) against those who,
having become Christians and learned the principles of
morality, relapsed into the vices which were commonly
practised in pagan society. These were to be treated far
more severely than the pagans, though the pagans lived
after the same fashion ; for the pagans lived so on principle,
knowingly and intentionally, because they held it to be
right, whereas the Christians had learned that it was wrong,
and yet from weakness of will and character slipped back
into the evil. With them the true Christians were not to
384 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sarats
keep company, but were to put them out of their society
and their meetings. With pagans who hVed after the same
fashion, however, it was allowable to associate (though it
lies in the nature of the case, and needs no formal state-
ment, that the association between Christians and pagans
could never be so intimate as that of Christians with one
another).
A peculiarly kind and loving tone is perceptible in this
part of the letter. There is a certain reaction after the
abhorrence and disgust with which the weak degeneracy of
Sardis has been described ; and in this reaction the deserts
of the faithful few are painted with a loving touch. They
have kept themselves pure and true, and " they shall walk
with me in white, for they are worthy". Their reward shall
be to continue to the end white and pure, as they have kept
themselves in Sardis.
This warm and affectionate tone is marked by the form
of the final promise, which begins by simply repeating what
has been already said in the letter. In most of the other
letters the final promise comes as an addition ; but here
the love that speaks in the letter has already uttered the
promise, and there is nothing left in the conclusion except
to say it again, and to add explicitly what is already im-
plied in it, life. " He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed
in zvhite garments ; and I will in no wise blot his name out
of the Book of Life, and I will confess his name before my
Father and before his angels!' The reward of all victors
shall be the reward just promised to the few faithful in
Sardis, purity and life — to have their name standing always
in the Book, openly acknowledged and emblazoned before
God.
In the Smyrnaean letter also the concluding promise is
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 385
to a certain extent anticipated in the body of the letter, as
here ; and the tone of that letter is throughout warm and
appreciative, beyond the rest of the Seven Letters. Where
this letter rises to the tone of love and admiration, it ap-
proximates to the character of the Smyrnaean letter, and
like it ends with the promise of life.
The " Book of Life " is here evidently understood as an
official list (so to say) of the citizens of the heavenly city,
the true Jerusalem, the Elect City, peopled by the true
Christians of all cities and provinces and nations. As in all
Greek and Roman cities of that time there was kept a list
of citizens, according to their class or tribe or deme, in
which new citizens were entered and from which degraded
citizens were expunged, so the writer of this letter figura-
tively mentions the Book of Life. There is a remnant in
Sardis whose names shall never be deleted from the Book,
from which most Sardians have been expunged already.
That undoubtedly is the meaning which would be taken
from the words here by Asian readers. Mr. Anderson Scott
points out that in the Jewish Apocalyptic literature a wider
sense is given to the term, and the "Book of Life" is
regarded as a record of exploits, a history of the life and
works of God's people. That this second sense was in
the writer's mind elsewhere is certain ; but it is certain
that he speaks and thinks of two distinct kinds of books :
one is a series of books of record : the other is the Book
of Life. This is clear from the words of xx. 12:/ saw
the dead great and small, standing before the Throne ; and
books were opened : and another book zvas opened, which is
{the Book) of Life : and the dead were judged out of the
things which were written in the books, according to their
works. With this passage xiii. 8, xvii. 8, xx. 15 should be
25
386 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardh
compared, and from it they should be interpreted. The
wider sense could not be gathered by the Asian readers
from this reference, and was assuredly not intended by the
writer of the letter.
This is one of many points of difference which strongly
mark off the Apocalypse of John from the common Apo-
calyptic literature of that age and earlier times ; and this
immense difference ought never to be forgotten (though it
is perhaps not always remembered clearly enough) by those
scholars who, in studying the great influence exerted by
the older literature of this class on our Apocalypse, have
seen in it an enlarged Christian edition of an originally
Jewish Apocalypse.
White was widely considered among the ancient nations
as the colour of innocence and purity. On this account it
was appropriate for those who were engaged in the worship
of the gods, for purity was prescribed as a condition of
engaging in divine service, though usually the purity was
understood in a merely ceremonial sense. All Roman
citizens wore the pure white toga on holidays and at reli-
gious ceremonies, whether or not they wore it on ordinary
days ; in fact, the great majority of them did not ordinarily
wear that heavy and cumbrous garment ; and hence the
city on festivals and holidays is called " Candida urbs," the
city in white. Especially on the day of a Triumph white
was the universal colour — though the soldiers, of course,
wore not the toga, the garb of peace, but their full-dress
military attire with all their decorations — and there can
hardly be any doubt that the idea of walking in a Triumph
similar to that celebrated by a victorious Roman general
is here present in the mind of the writer when he uses the
words, " they shall walk with me in white ". A dirty and
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 387
dark-coloured toga, on the other hand, was the appropriate
dress of sorrow and of guilt. Hence it was worn by
mourners and by persons accused of crimes.
The Asian readers could know of a Roman Triumph
only from literature and report, for in the strictest sense
Triumphs could be celebrated only in Rome, and only by
an Emperor in person ; but, in proportion as the Triumph
in the strict old Roman sense became rare, the splendour
and pomp which had originally been appropriated to it
alone were more widely employed ; as, for example, in the
procession escorting the pies. ding magistrate, the Praetor,
to the games in the Roman Circus ; and there is no doubt
that the great provincial festivals and shows, which were
celebrated in the chief Asian cities according to Imperial
policy as a means of diffusing Roman ideas and ways, were
inaugurated with a procession modelled after the stately
Roman procession in which the Praetor was escorted in
triumph to the circus, as Juvenal describes it: —
What ! had he seen, in his triumphant car,
Amid the dusty Cirque, conspicuous far,
The Praetor perched aloft, superbly drest
In Jove's proud tunic with a trailing vest
Of Tyrian tapestry, and o'er him spread
A crown too bulky for a human head :
Add now the Imperial Eagle, raised on high,
With golden beak, the mark of majesty.
Trumpets before, and on the left and right
A cavalcade of nobles, all in white.
Thus though the Triumph itself could never have been
seen by the readers of this letter, they knew it as the most
typical celebration of complete and final victory, partly
from report and literature, partly from frequently seeing
388 XXVI. The Letter to the Chiwch in Sardis
ceremonies in the great Imperial festivals which were
modelled after the Triumph. Hence, St, Paul in writing
to the Colossians, ii. 15, uses a similar metaphor: ^^ he
made a show of the principalities and the powers, openly
triumphing over them in it" which (as Lightfoot and
scholars generally recognise) means that the powers of the
world were treated as a general treats his conquered foes,
stripped ^ of their honours, and paraded in the Triumph as
a show to please the citizens and to glorify the conqueror.
The Triumph was in origin a religious ceremonial. The
victorious general who celebrated it played for the mo-
ment the part of the Roman god Jupiter ; he wore the
god's dress and insignia, and resigned them again when he
reached the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the
Capitoline Mount. But it need not be thought strange
that St. John and St. Paul should use this pagan ceremonial
to express metaphorically the decisive triumph of Christ
over all opposing powers in the world, when we have seen
that Ignatius describes the life of the true Christian as a
long religious procession similar to those which were cele-
brated in the pagan ritual.
The warm and loving tone in the latter part of the
Sardian letter need cause no wonder. There is always
something peculiarly admirable and affecting in the con-
templation of a pure and high life which maintains
unspotted rectitude amid surrounding degradation and
vileness. No characters stand out in clearer relief and
more striking beauty than the small band of high-minded
Romans who preserved their nobility of spirit and life
amid the degeneracy and servility of the early Empire.
The same distinction marks this remnant of purity amid
the decaying and already dead Church of Sardis. Even
The Letter to the Church in Sardis 389
the thought of it rouses a warm interest in the modern
reader's mind, and we understand how it inspires this part
of the letter with an unusual warmth of emotion, which
contrasts with the coldness that we observed in the Ephesian
letter.
Hence also we see how the analogy between these two
letters, the Sardian and the Ephesian, ceases towards the
end of the letter. The standard of conduct throughout the
Ephesian Church had been uniform ; the whole Church
had acted correctly and admirably in the past ; the whole
Church was now cooling down and beginning to degenerate.
No exception is made ; no remnant is described that had
not lost heart and enthusiasm. The changeable nature of
Ephesus had affected all alike. And therefore the penalty
is pronounced, that the Church shall be moved out of its
place. It is a conditional penalty ; but there is no sugges-
tion that any portion of the Church has escaped or may
escape it. The Church as a whole must revivify itself, or
suffer the penalty ; and Ephesus cannot alter its nature ;
changeableness is the law of its being. There is no real
hope held out that the penalty may be avoided ; and the
promise at the conclusion is couched in the most general
terms ; this Church is cooling and degenerating, but to
him that overcometh vigour and life shall be given.
On the other hand, the Sardian Church has not been
uniform in its conduct, and it shall not all suffer the same
fate. The Church as a whole is dead ; but a {q.^^ who
form bright and inspiring exceptions, shall live as citizens
of the heavenly city. There is no hint that Sardis shall be
spared, or the Church survive it. Its doom is sealed irre-
vocably ; and yet a remnant shall live.
Sardis to-day is a wilderness of ruins and thorns, pas-
390 XXVI. The Letter to the Church in Sardis
tures and wild-flowers, where the only habitations are a
few huts of Yuruk nomads beside the temple of Cybele in
the low ground by the Pactolus, and at the distance of a
mile two modern houses by the railway station. And yet
in a sense a remnant has escaped and still survives, which
does not indeed excite the same loving tenderness as makes
itself felt in the latter part of this letter, yet assuredly
merits our sympathy and interest. In the plain of the
Hermus, which Sardis once dominated there are a few
scattered villages whose inhabitants, though nominally
Mohammedans, are clearly marked off by certain customs
from the Turkish population around. Their women (ac-
cording to the account given us at Sardis) usually bear
Christian names, though the men's names are of the or-
dinary Mohammedan class ; they have a kind of priests,
who wear black head-dress, not the white turban of the
Mohammedan hodjas and imams ; the villages hold private
assemblies when these " black-heads " (Kara-Bash) pay
them visits ; they practise strict monogamy, and divorce
(which is so easy for true Mohammedans) is not permitted ;
they drink wine and violate other Mohammedan rules and
prohibitions ; and it is believed by some persons who have
mixed with them that they would become Christians forth-
with, if it did not mean death to do so. At the same time
they are not at all like the strange people called Takhtaji
or Woodmen : ^ the latter are apparently a survival of ancient
paganism, pre-Christian in origin.
CHAPTER XXVII.
PHILADELPHIA: THE MISSIONARY CITY.»
Philadelphia was the only Pergamenian foundation
among the Seven Cities. It derived its name from At-
talus II., 159-138 B.C., whose truth and loyalty to his
brother Eumenes won him the epithet Philadelphus. The
district where it was situated, the valley of the Cogamis, a
tributary of the Hermus, came into the possession of the
Pergamenian King Eumenes at the treaty of 189. From
that time onward the district was in the heart of the Per-
gamenian realm ; and therefore the new city could not
have been founded as a military colony to guard a frontier,
like Thyatira. Military strength was, of course, never
entirely neglected in those foundations of the Greek kings ;
and especially a city founded, like Philadelphia, on an
important road, was charged with the duty of guarding
the road.2 But military strength and defence against in-
vasion were required chiefly near the eastern frontier, far
away on the other side of Phrygia, where an enemy should
be prevented from entering the realm. Philadelphia was
founded more for consolidating and regulating and educat-
ing the central regions subject to the Pergamenian kings.
The intention of its founder was to make it a centre of the
Graeco-Asiatic civilisation and a means of spreading the
Greek language and manners in the eastern parts of Lydia
and in Phrygia. It was a missionary city from the begin-
(391)
392 XXVII. Philadelphia: the Missionary City
ning, founded to promote a certain unity of spirit, customs,
and loyalty within the realm, the apostle of Hellenism in
an Oriental land. It was a successful teacher. Before
A.D. 19 the Lydian tongue had ceased to be spoken in
Lydia, and Greek was the only language of the country.
If sufficient information had been preserved about the
religion of Thyatira and Philadelphia, it would have been
possible to understand and describe the nature of those
two Graeco-Asiatic cities and to specify the difference in
character between a Seleucid and a Pergamenian foundation.
From the religious establishment of each city, it would have
been easy to distinguish what elements in each were native
Anatolian, what were introduced from Europe, and what
were brought in by colonists from Oriental lands, and how
these were blended to produce a composite Graeco-Asiatic
religion corresponding to the purposes which the new cities
were intended to serve. This would be an object-lesson in
practical government and religion, for those two cities are
types of the fusion of Greek and Asiatic thought and custom,
as attempted by the two chief Hellenising kingdoms in the
Asiatic continent. But literary sources are silent, and the
information furnished by coins and inscriptions is too
scanty, sporadic, and superficial to be of much value.
The coins, as a rule, were much more Hellenised than the
actual cults. Hellenised ideas about the gods, being more
anthropomorphic, were more easily adapted to the small
types which coins admitted ; and, moreover, they belonged
to the higher education, and obtained on that account more
than their relative share of notice in such public and official
monuments as coins, Philadelphia, also, was a centre for
the diffusion of Greek language and letters in a peaceful
land by peaceful means.
Philadelphia : the Missionary City 393
A subject like that which appears in Fig. 33 represents
Philadelphia in a purely Greek and an entirely non-religious
fashion by two men exactly similar in attitude and dress,
standing and looking upon the genius of Ephesus as she
carries the idol of her own Artemis towards a temple built
in the Roman style. The tvv^o men are two brothers, and
their identity of outward form is symbolical of their unan-
imity and mutual affection, and makes them a suitable
envisagement of the nature of a city, whose name means
brotherly love. This coin commemorates an "alliance,"
Fig. 33. — The alliance of Philadelphia and EphesuB.
or agreement as to common religious and festal arrange-
ments, between the two cities. Apparently the temple is
to be understood as Philadelphian ; and the Ephesian
goddess is being introduced into established Philadelphian
ritual in the presence of the twin Hellenised founders of
the city. See pp. 125 f, 230.
Thoroughly Graeco-Roman in character, too, is the coin
type shown in Fig. 34. Here the front of a temple is repre-
sented as open, to show a statue of the sun-god, with head
surrounded by rays : he holds out the globe of the sun (or
394 XXVII. Philadelphia: the Missionary City
is it the solid earth ?) in his right hand, and carries a sceptre
in his left.
More indicative of Anatolian religious character is a type
which occurs more than once, a coiled serpent with raised
head and protruding tongue riding on the back of a horse.
The serpent is, without doubt, the representative of Askle-
pios, as in Fig. 23, p. 285, but it is probable that the type
is not in a further sense religious : it does not indicate any
connection in myth or cult between Asklepios and the
Fig. 34. — The Sun-god of Philadelphia,
horse, but merely that a horse-race was a prominent feature
in the games celebrated under tlie name Asklepieia.
Inscriptions give some information, which the Hellenised
coins refuse, about the cults practised in the city, and
prove that the Anatolian character was strongly marked.
In those Graeco- Asiatic cities there is no sign that the
Greek spirit in religion took the place of the Anatolian to
any great extent. The Greek character in religion was
confined to superficial show and festivals : in heart the
religion was thoroughly Anatolian. Many of the formulae
Philadelphia : the Missionary City 395
characteristic of the reh'gion practised in the Katakekaumene
(a district described below), confession of sin, punishment
of sin by the god, thanks to the god, publication of the
circumstances on a stele erected as a testimony, etc., occur
in inscriptions found at Philadelphia.^
The Pergamenian king selected an excellent situation for
the new city. A long vale runs up south-east from the
Hermus Valley into the flank of the central plateau : this is
the vale down which comes the river Cogamis to join the
Hermus. The vale ofiers the best path to make the ascent
from the middle Hermus Valley, 500 feet or less above the
sea, to the main plateau : the plateau is over 3,000 feet
above sea-level, and its outer rim is even higher. It is not
easy for a road to make so high a step, and even by the
Cogamis vale there is a very steep and long climb to the
top of the hills which form the rim of the plateau. But
this is the path by which trade and communication from
the harbour of Smyrna and from Lydia and the north-west
regions are maintained with Phrygia and the East. It was
at that time an important road, rivalling even the great
trade-route from Ephesus to the East ; and in later Byzan-
tine and mediaeval times it was the greatest trade-route of
the whole country. Its importance is now continued by
the railway, which connects Smyrna with the interior.
Moreover, the Imperial Post-Road of the first century,
coming from Rome by Troas, Pergamum and Sardis (see
map facing p. i), passed through Philadelphia and went
on to the East ; and thus Philadelphia was a stage on the
main line of Imperial communication. Tliis ceased to be
the case when the later overland route by Constantinople
(Byzantium, as it was then called) and Ancyra was organ-
ised in the second century.*
396 XXVI I. Philadelphia: the Missionary City
The Cogamis Vale is enclosed between Mount Tmolus on
the left (south and west) and the plateau proper on the
right. A site for the city was found on a broad hill, which
slopes gently up from the valley towards Tmolus. In a
too close view from the plain the hill seems to merge in
the main mass of Tmolus, but when one ascends through
the streets of the modern town to the highest point, one
finds that the hill is cut off from the mountains behind.^
See Plate XII. Thus the site was susceptible of being made
a very strong fortress in ancient warfare, provided it were
carefully fortified on the lower slopes and courageously
defended in the hour of trial ; and its strength was proved
in many long and terrible sieges by the Mohammedans in
later centuries.
From these general considerations the modern scholar
has to reconstruct in imagination the character of the city
at the beginning of our era. It was then an important
place with a considerable coinage : the great Swiss numis-
matist, M. Imhoof Blumer, assigns a large body of coins
to the reign of Augustus.^
Then Philadelphia emerges into world-wide fame through
a conspicuous disaster. It was situated on the edge of the
Katakekaumene, a district of Lydia where volcanoes, now
extinct, have been active in recent geological time, where
the traces of their eruptions in rivers of black lava and vast
cinder-heaps are very impressive, and where earthquakes
have been frequent in historical times. In A.D. 17 an un-
usually severe earthquake destroyed twelve cities of the
great Lydian Valley, including Sardis and Philadelphia.
Strabo, who wrote about two or three years after this dis-
aster, says that Sardis suffered most at the moment, but
gives a remarkable picture of the long-continued terror at
. v^
Philadelphia : the Missionary City 397
Philadelphia. Apparently frequent shocks were experi-
enced there for a long time afterwards. It has been the
present writer's experience in that country that the first
great shock of earthquake is not so trying to the mind as
the subsequent shocks, even though less severe, when
these recur at intervals during the subsequent weeks and
months, and that people who have shown conspicuous
courage at first may give way to utter panic during some
of the later shocks. This state of panic set in at Phila-
delphia, and continued when Strabo wrote, A.D. 20. Many
of the inhabitants remained outside the city living in huts and
booths over the vale, and those who were foolhardy enough
(as the sober-minded thought) to remain in the city, prac-
tised various devices to support and strengthen the walls
and houses against the recurring shocks. The memory of
this disaster lived long ; the very name Katakekaumene
was a perpetual warning ; people lived amid ever threaten-
ing danger, in dread always of a new disaster; and the
habit of going out to the open country had probably not
disappeared when the Seven Letters were written.
Philadelphia shared in the bounty of the Emperor Tiberius
on this occasion, and took part with the other cities in
erecting in Rome a monument commemorating their
gratitude. It also founded a cult of Germanicus, the
adopted son and heir of Tiberius (according to the will of
Augustus), who was in Asia at the time, and who was pro-
bably the channel through which the bounty was transmitted.
In spite of this liberality the city suffered severely ; its
prosperity was seriously impaired ; and no coins were struck
by it throughout the reign of Tiberius.
It was probably in commemoration of the kindness shown
by the Emperor on this occasion that Philadelphia assumed
398 XXVII. Philadelphia : the Missionary City
the name Neokaisareia ; the New Caesar was either Tiberius
(as compared with Augustus) or Germanicus (as compared
with Tiberius) J The name Neokaisareia is known both
from coins and epigraphy during the ensuing period. At
first the old name was disused and the new name employed
alone ; then the old name recurred alongside of or alter-
nately with the new ; and finally about A.D. 42-50 the new
name disappeared from use. Philadelphia was the only one
of the Seven Cities that had voluntarily substituted a new
name for its original name : the other six were too proud of
their ancient fame to sacrifice their name, though Sardis
took the epithet Caesareia for a short time after A.D. 17.
This explanation of the name Neokaisareia differs from
that given by M. Imhoof Blumer, who says that the name
was assumed in honour of Caligula. His reason is that the
name is found only on some coins of Caligula and of his
successor ; but it was impossible to put it on coins of
Tiberius, for no coins were struck under that Emperor.
The new name began to fall into disuse even during the
short reign of Caligula, and disappeared entirely soon after
the accession of Claudius.
Subsequently, during the reign of Vespasian, A.D. 70-79,
Philadelphia assumed another Imperial title and called
itself Flavia ; and the double name remained in use oc-
casionally on coins throughout the second and third
centuries.
Thus Philadelphia was distinguished from the other
cities by several characteristics : first, it was the missionary
city : secondly, its people lived always in dread of a
disaster, " the day of trial " : thirdly, many of its people
went out of the city to dwell : fourthly, it took a new
name from the Imperial god.
Philadelphia: the Missionary City 399
Philadelphia, during the second century and the third,
more than recovered its prosperity ; and under Caracalla
it was honoured with the title Neokoros or Temple- Warden
in the State reh"gion. This implies that a Provincial temple
of the Imperial cult was built there between A.D. 211 and
217 ; and henceforward the Commune of Asia met there
occasionally to hold some of its State festivals.
The history of the Philadelphian Church was distin-
guished by a prophetess Ammia, who flourished apparently
between A.D. 100 and 160. She was universally recognised
as ranking with Agabus and the four daughters of Philip,
as one of the few in the later time who were truly gifted
with the prophetic power. She remains a mere name to
us, preserved in Eusebius's history, v., 17, 2.
In Byzantine and in mediaeval times its importance
increased steadily. Civilisation of a kind became more
firmly settled in the heart of Asia Minor in the centuries
following the foundation of Constantinople as capital of
the Roman Empire. The inner lands of Asia Minor
became more important. Their trade now flowed to Con-
stantinople rather than to Rome ; and the coast-towns on
the .^gean Sea became less important in consequence.
The centre of gravity of the world, and the moving forces
of civilisation, had shifted towards the East ; and the con-
nection of Asia Minor with the West was no longer of such
pre-eminent importance as in the Roman time. The Em-
pire of Rome had been strongly orientalised and transformed
into a Roman -Asiatic Empire, on whose throne sat succes-
sively Phrygians, Isaurians, Cappadocians, and Armenians.
In that period the situation of Philadelphia made it a great
city, as a centre of wide influence, and the guardian of a
doorway in the system of communication.
400 XXVII. Philadelphia: the Missionary City
In the last stages of the struggle between the decaying
Empire and the growing power of the Turks, Philadelphia
played a noble part, and rose to a lofty pitch of heroism.
Long after all the country round had passed finally under
Turkish power, Philadelphia held up the banner of Chris-
tendom. It displayed all the noble qualities of endurance,
truth and steadfastness, which are attributed to it in the
letter of St. John, amid the ever threatening danger of
Turkish attack ; and its story rouses even Gibbon to
admiration.
During the fourteenth century it stood practically alone
against the entire Turkish power as a free, self-govern-
ing Christian city amid a Turkish land. Twice it was
besieged by great Turkish armies, and its people reduced
to the verge of starvation ; but they had learned to defend
themselves and to trust to no king or external government ;
and they resisted successfully to the end. Philadelphia
was no longer a city of the Empire ; and the Emperors
regarded rather with jealousy than with sympathy its gal-
lant struggle to maintain itself against the Turks. At last,
about 1 379" 1 390 it succumbed to a combined Turkish and
Byzantine army ; what the Turks alone had never been
able to do they achieved by availing themselves of the
divisions and jealousy among the Christians. Since that
time Philadelphia has been transformed into the Mohamme-
dan town of Ala-Sheher, the reddish city, a name derived
from the speckled, red-brown hills around it.
In the last period of its freedom, it succeeded, as even
the stubbornly conservative and unchanging ecclesiastical
lists allowed, to the primacy among the bishoprics ot
Lydia, which had belonged for more than a thousand
years to Sardis.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA.
These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key
of David, he that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and none
openeth.
I know thy works : behold I have given before thee an opened door, which
none can shut, because thou hast little strength, and didst keep my word,
and didst not deny my name. Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan,
of them which say they are fews, and they are not, but do lie; behold I
will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I
have loved thee. Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also
will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the
whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly : hold
fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.
He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go out thence no more : and I will write upon him the name
of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which
Cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
The address of the Philadelphian letter is conceived with
evident reference to the topics mentioned in the body of
the letter, and to the character and past history of the
Church. The writer is *^ he that hath tJte key of David, that
openeth and none shall shut" ; and the history of Phila-
delphia and its Church has been determined in the past,
and will in the future be determined, mainly by the fact
that " / have set before thee a door opened, which none can
shut ".
The writer of the letter is " he that is true " ; and the
(401)
402 XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
Philadelphian Church " kept my word and did not deny my
name" but confessed the truth, whereas its enemies are they
" which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie ". The
writer of the letter is, " he that is holy " ; and the picture of
Philadelphia that is given in the letter marks it beyond all
others of the Seven as the holy city, which " / have loved, "
which kept my word and my injunction of endurance (a
commendation twice repeated).
It may fairly be considered a complimentary form of
address when the writer invests himself with the same
character that he praises in the Church addressed. That
is also the case in the Smyrnaean letter : there he " which
was dead and lived'' addresses the Church which, as he
anticipates, will suffer to death and thereby gain the crown
of life. But it is hardly the case in any other letter. In
addressing Ephesus and Pergamum and Thyatira the writer
speaks as holding that position and authority and power,
which they are by their conduct losing. The writer to
Sardis occupies the honourable position which Sardis has
lost beyond hope of recovery. The writer to Laodicea is
faithful and true, addressing a Church which is reproached
for its irresolution and want of genuineness.
In this respect, then, the letters to Smyrna and Phil-
adelphia form a class by themselves ; and the analogy
extends to other characteristics. These two Churches are
praised with far more cordiality and less reserve than
any of the others. They have both had to contend with
serious difficulties. The Smyrnaean Church was poor and
oppressed, the Philadelphian Church had but little power.
Before both there is held forth a prospect of suffering and
trial ; but in both cases a triumphant issue is confidently
anticipated. Life for Smyrna, honour and dignity for
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia 403
Philadelphia, are promised — not for a residue amid the
unfaithful, as at Thyatira or Sardis, but for the Church in
both cities. It is an interesting coinc'dence that those are
the two cities which have been the bulwark and the glory
of Christian power in the country since it became Moham-
medan ; they are the two places where the Christian flag
floated latest over a free and powerful city, and where even
in slavery the Christians preserved cohesion among them-
selves and real influence among the Turkish conquerors.
Another analogy is that in those two letters alone is the
Jewish Nationalist party mentioned. Now in every city
where there was a body of Jews settled, either as resident
strangers or as citizens of the town, the Nationalist party
existed ; and there can hardly be any doubt that in every
important commercial centre in the Province Asia there was
a body of Jews settled. In every one of the Seven Cities,
we may be sure, there was a Nationalist Jewish party, op-
posing, hating, and annoying the Jewish Christians and
with them the whole Church in the city. If that diffi-
culty is mentioned only in those two cities, Smyrna and
Philadelphia, the natural inference is that it had been more
serious in them than in the others ; and that can only be
because the Jews were, for some reason or other, specially
influential there. Doubtless the reason lay in their num-
bers and their wealth ; and hence the weakness and poverty
of the Christian party is specially mentioned in those two
Churches, and in none of the other five.
The body of the letter begins with the usual statement
that the writer is familiar with the history and activity of
the Philadelphian Church : " / know thy works ". Then
follows, as usual, an outline of the pa-^t achievements and
conduct of that Church ; but this outline is couched in an
404 XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
unusual form. " See^ I have given before thee a door opened^
which no one is able to shut." There can be no doubt
what the '^opened door" means. It is a Pauline metaphor,
which had passed into ordinary usage in the early Church.
At Ephesus " a great door and effectual was opened'' to him
(l Cor. xvi. 9). At Troas also "a door was opened" for
him (2 Cor, ii. 12). He asked the Colossians to pray "//z^/
God may open unto us a door for the word, to speak the
mystery of Christ" (Coloss. iv. 3). In these three Pauline
expressions the meaning is clearly explained by the con-
text : a " door opened" means a good opportunity for mis-
sionary work. In the Revelation this usage has become
fixed, and the word " door " is almost a technical term, so
that no explanation in the context is thought necessary ;
unless the Pauline use had become familiar and almost
stereotyped, the expression in this letter would hardly have
been possible.
The history of Philadelphia!! activity had been deter-
mined by its unique opportunity for missionary work ;
there had been given to it a door opened before it. The
expression is strong : it is not merely " / have set before
thee a door" ; it is "/ have given thee {the opportunity of)
a door {which I have) opened before thee ". This opportunity
was a special gift and privilege and favour bestowed upon
Philadelphia. Nothing of the kind is mentioned for any
other city.
The situation of the city fully explains this saying.
Philadelphia lay at the upper extremity of a long valley,
which opens back from the sea. After passing Philadel-
phia the road along this valley ascends to the Phrygian
land and the great Central Plateau, the main mass of Asia
Minor. This road was the one which led from the harbour
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia 405
of Smyrna to the north-eastern parts of Asia Minor and the
East in general, the one rival to the great route connecting
Ephesus with the East, and the greatest Asian trade-route
of mediaeval times.
The Imperial Post Road from Rome to the Provinces
farther east and south-east coincided for some considerable
distance with this trade-route. Through Troas, Pergamum,
Thyatira, it reached Sardis ; and from thence it was iden-
tical with the trade-route by Philadelphia up to the centre
of Phrygia, Along this great route the new influence was
steadily moving eastwards from Philadelphia in the strong
current of communication that set from Rome across
Phrygia towards the distant East. As we have seen in
chapter xv., it had not yet penetrated beyond the centre
of Phrygia into the north-east, so that there was abundant
opportunity open before it.
Philadelphia, therefore, was the keeper of the gateway
to the plateau ; but the door had now been permanently
opened before the Church, and the work of Philadelphia
had been to go forth through the door and carry the gospel
to the cities of the Phrygian land.
It is not stated explicitly that Philadelphia used the
opportunity that had been given it ; but that is clearly
implied in the context. The door had been opened for the
Philadelphian Church by Him who does nothing in vain :
He did this because the opportunity would be used.
Here alone in all the Seven Letters is there an allu-
sion to the fact which seems to explain why those special
Seven Cities were marked out for " the Seven Churches of
Asia". But it would be wrong to infer that Philadelphia
alone among the Seven Cities had a door before it. Each
of the Seven Cities stood at the door of a district. In truth
4o6 XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
every Church had its own opportunity ; and all the Seven
Churches had specially favourable opportunities opened to
them by geographical situation and the convenience of
communication. But it lies in the style and plan of the
Seven Letters to mention only in one case what was a
common characteristic of all the Seven Cities ; and Phil-
adelphia was selected, because in its history that fact — its
relation to the cities on the near side of the Central Plateau
had been the determining factor. Philadelphia must
have been pre-eminent among the Seven Cities as the
missionary Church. We have no other evidence of this ;
but the Situation marks out this line of activity as natural,
and the letter clearly declares that the Philadelphian Church
acted accordingly.
The construction of the following words in the Greek is
obscure, and it is possible to translate in several ways.
But the rendering given in the Authorised Version (aban-
doned unfortunately in the Revised Version) must be
preferred : ** / know thy works ; see^ I have given thee the
opportunity of the opened door, because thou hast little power ^
and didst keep my word and didst not deny my name".
The opened door is here explained to have been a peculiar
favour granted to Philadelphia, because in spite of its want
of strength it had been loyal and true.
If the Philadelphian Church had little power, so also had
the city. It had suffered from earthquakes more than any
other city of all Asia. In A.D. 17 a great earthquake had
caused very serious damage ; and the effects lasted for
years after. The trembling of the earth continued for a
long time, so that the inhabitants were afraid to repair the
injured houses, or did so with careful provision against
collapse. Two or three years later, when Strabo wrote,
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia 407
shocks of earthquake were an everyday occurrence. The
walls of the houses were constantly gapinc^ in cracks ; and
now one part of the city, now another part, was suffering.
Few people ventured to live in the city ; most spent their
lives outside, and devoted themselves to cultivating the fer-
tile Philadelphian territory. There is an obvious reference
to this in a later sentence of the letter, where the promise
is given to the faithful Philadelphians that they shall go
out thence no more. Those who stayed in the city had
to direct their attention to the motions of the earth, and
guard against the danger of falling walls by devices of
building and propping. Plate XIII.
Such a calamity, and the terror it had inspired, naturally
hindered the development and prosperity of Philadelphia.
The Emperor Tiberius indeed treated Philadelphia and the
other eleven Asian cities, which suffered about the same
time, with great liberality ; and aided them to regain their
strength both by grants of money and by remission of
taxation. Though at the moment of the great earthquake
Sardis had suffered most severely, Philadelphia (as is clear
from Strabo's account) was much slower in recovering
from the effects, owing to the long-continuance of minor
shocks and the reputation of the city as dangerous. The
world in general thought, like Strabo, that Philadelphia
was unsafe to enter, that only a rash person would live in
it, and only fools could have ever founded it. No coins
appear to have been struck in the city during the twenty
years that followed the earthquake ; and this is attributed
by numismatists to the impoverishment and weakness caused
by that disaster.
Gradually, as time passed, people recovered confidence.
Subsequent history has shown that the situation about
4o8 XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
A.D. 17-20, as described by Strabo, was unusual. Phila-
delphia has not been more subject to earthquakes in subse-
quent time than other cities of Asia. So far as our scanty
knowledge goes, Smyrna has suffered more. But when the
Seven Letters were written the memory of that disastrous
period was still fresh. People remembered, and perhaps
still practised, camping out in the open country; and they
appreciated the comfort implied in the promise, verse 12,
" he shall go out thence no more ". They appreciated, also,
the guarantee that, as a reward for the Church's loyalty
and obedience, " / also will keep thee from the hour of trial,
that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try
them that dwell upon the earth ". The Philadelphians who
had long lived in constant dread of " the hour of trial*'
would appreciate the special form in which this promise
of help is expressed.
The concluding promise of the letter resumes this allu-
sion. " He that overcometh, I tuill make him a pillar in the
temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more!' The
pillar is the symbol of stability, of the firm support on
which the upper part of the temple rests. The victor shall
be shaken by no disaster in the great day of trial ; and he
shall never again require to go out and take refuge in the
open country. The city which had suffered so much and
so long from instability was to be rewarded with the Divine
firmness and steadfastness.
That is not the only gift that has been granted the Phil-
adelphian Church. " See I I am giving of the Synagogue
of Satan, who profess themselves to be fews, and they are
not, but do lie : see ! I will make them come and do reverence
before thy feet and know that I have loved thee" This
statement takes us into the midst of the long conflict that
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia 409
had been going on in Philadelphia. The Jews and the
Jewish Christians had been at bitter enmity ; and it must
be confessed that, to judge from the spirit shown in St.
John's references to the opposite party, the provocation
was not wholly on one side. The Jews boasted themselves
to be the national and patriotic party, the true Jews, the
chosen people, beloved and favoured of God, who were
hereafter to be the victors and masters of the world when
the Messiah should come in His kingdom. They up-
braided and despised the Jewish Christians as traitors,
unworthy of the name of Jews, the enemies of God. But
the parts shall soon be reversed. The promise begins in
the present tense, " I am giving " ; but it breaks off in an
incomplete sentence, and commences afresh in the future
tense, " I will make them (who scorned you) to bow in
reverence before you, and to know that you (and not they)
are the true Jews whom I have loved ".
A characteristic which distinguished Philadelphia from
the rest of the Seven Cities was that it alone abandoned
its old name and took in its place a name derived from
the Imperial religion. The others were too proud, appar-
ently, of their own ancient and historic names to abandon
them even for an Imperial title. Sardis, indeed, which had
suffered very severely from the earthquake in A.D. 17, and
had been treated with special kindness by Tiberius, had
assumed the title Caesareia then ; but Caesareia was a mere
epithet, which was used along with the old name and not
in place of it ; and the epithet soon fell into disuse, and is
never used on coins later than the reign of Caligula 37-41.
Some other less important cities of Asia had in like manner
assumed an Imperial name in place of their own. Thus,
for example, Hierokome in Lydia had abandoned its name,
4IO XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
and in gratitude to Tiberius for his kindness in A.D. 17
had taken the name Hierocassareia, which lasted through
the subsequent history of the city. Similarly, Philadelphia
assumed the name Neokaisareia and disused its own.
Now, according to the Roman regulations, it was not
permitted to a city to assume an Imperial name when it
pleased. Such a name was regarded as highly honourable,
and as binding the city closely to the Imperial service. Per-
mission had to be sought from the Senate, which governed
Asia through the Proconsul whom it selected and sent for
the purpose ; but, of course, the Emperor's own will was
decisive in the matter, and the Senate would never grant
permission without ascertaining what he wished. Tiberius
had crowned his kindness to the city by permitting it to
style itself Neokaisareia, the city of the Young Caesar, w>.,
either himself or Germanicus, who was in the East on a
special mission in A.D. 17-19, and had perhaps been the
agent through whom the Imperial bounty was bestowed.
A shrine of Germanicus was erected then.
Philadelphia was thereby specially consecrated to the
service, i.e. the worship, of the Young Caesar. There can
be no doubt that a shrine of the Neos Kaisar, with a priest
and a regular ritual, was established soon after A.D. 17 and
not later than 19. Philadelphia wrote on itself the name
of the Imperial god, and called itself the city of its Imperial
god present on earth to help it.
Erected in the time of Philadelphia's great poverty, im-
mediately after the disaster that had tried its credit and
weakened its resources, yet raised without aid from the
Commune of the Province, this temple of the Young Caesar
could not have been fit to compare with the splendid
buildings for the Imperial worship in Smyrna or Perg?
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia 411
mum or Ephesus. As the worship of Germanicus dis-
appears completely from notice after A.D. 50, and as the
other buildings of the city seem to have been in a perilous
condition for years after the shock of A.D. 17, we may
conjecture that the humble temple at Philadelphia had
not withstood the assaults of earthquake and the slower
influence of time : moreover, there was little temptation
to maintain the worship of Germanicus (who did not rank
among the regular Imperial gods) after the death of his
son Caligula and his brother Claudius.
It may therefore be fairly gathered that the new shrine
was in a state of dilapidation and decay when the Seven
Letters were composed. We know from a letter of Pliny
to Trajan, that the same thing had happened to a temple
of Claudius, which stood on private ground in the wealthy
city of Prusa in Bithynia ; yet the soil on which that ruined
temple had stood was declared by Trajan to be for ever
exempted from profane and common use. Accordingly
there would be an opening for a telling contrast, such as
St. John so frequently aims at, between the shifting facts
of ordinary city life and the more permanent character
of the analogous institutions and promises of the Divine
Author.
Here, on the one side, were the ruined temple and the
obsolete worship of the Imperial god and the disused new
name which for a time the city had been proud to bear —
a name that commemorated a terrible disaster, a period of
trial and weakness, and a dole of money from the Imperial
purse : none of all these things had been permanent, and
there remained from them nothing of which the city could
now feel proud.
On the other hand the letter gives the pledge of safety
412 XXVIII. Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
from the hour of trial, of steadiness like the pillar of a
temple, of everlasting guarantee against disaster and evic-
tion, of exaltation above the enemies who now contemn
and insult; and in token of this eternal security it promises
that the name of God and of the city of God and of the
Divine Author shall b^ written upon the victor. When
a Philadelphian read those words, he could not fail to
discover in them the reference to his own city's history.
Like all the other cities he read the words as an engage-
ment that the Author will do far better for his own
everything that the enemy tries to do for the pagan city.
It is often incorrectly said that the victor receives three
names — of God, of the Church, and of Christ ; but the real
meaning is that a name is written on him which has all
three characters, and is at once the name of God, the name
of the Church, and the new name of Christ. What that
name shall be is a mystery, like the secret name written
on the white tessera for the Pergamenian victor.
In the times when we can catch a glimpse of its con-
dition, Philadelphia was living amid ceaseless dangers, of
old from earthquakes, at last from Turkish attack. It
was always in dread of the last hour of trial, and was
always kept from it. It stood like a pillar, the symbol of
stability and strength. In the middle ages it struggled
on, a small and weak city against a nation of warriors,
and did not deny the Name, but was patient to the end ;
and there has been written on its history a name that is
imperishable, so long as heroic resistance against over-
whelming odds, and persevering self-reliance, when deserted
by the world, are held in honour and remembered.
CHAPTER XXIX.
LAODICEA : THE CITY OF COMPROMISE.
Laodicea was founded by Antiochus II. (261-246 B.C ,
As a Scleucid foundation, it was probably similar to Th/a-
tira in respect of consLitation and law ; but no informatioo
has been preserved. It was situated at a critical point in
the road system of the country. The great road from the
west (from Ephesus and from Miletus) ascends the Maeander
Valley due eastwards, until it enters "the Gate of Phrygia",
In the Gate are a remarkable series of hot springs, and
warm mud-baths, some in the bed of the Maeander, others
on its banks.^ "The scene before the traveller as he tra-
verses the Gate is a suitable introduction to that Phrygian
land, which always seemed to the Greeks something strange
and unique."
Immediately above this point lies a much broader valley,
in which Lydia, Phrygia, and Caria meet. The Maeander
comes into this valley from the north, breaking through a
ridt^e of mountains by a gorge, which, though singularly
beautiful in scenery, is useless as a ro ^d-way. The road
goes on to the east up the glen of the Lycu*?, which here
joins the Maeander, and offers an easy road-w^ay. The
Lycus Glen is double, containing a lower and an upper glen.
Laodicea is the city of the lower glen, Colossae of the
upper. Due north of La^^dicea, between the Lycus and the
Maeander, stands Hierap lis, in a very conspicuous situation,
(413)
414 XXIX. Laodicea: the City of Compromise
on a shelf below the northern mountains and above the valley,
with a cascade of gleaming white cliffs below it, topped by
the buildings, still wonderfully well preserved, of the old city.
The glen of the Lycus extends up like a funnel into the
flank of the main plateau of Anatolia. Between the lower
and the upper glen there is a step about 400 feet high, and
again between the upper glen and the plateau there is
another step of about 850 feet ; but both can be surmounted
easily by the road. The lower glen, also, slopes upwards,
rising 250 feet ; and the upper glen slopes much more
rapidly, rising 550 feet. In this way the rise from the
Maeander Valley, 550 feet above the sea, to the plateau,
2,600 feet (an exceptionally low elevation), is achieved far
more easily by this path than at any other point. Hence
the Lycus Glen was always the most frequented path of
trade from the interior to the west throughout ancient time.
Laodicea was placed as a guard and door-keeper on this
road, near the foot of the Lycus Glen, where it opens on
the main valley of the Maeander. The hills that bound
the glen on the south run up northwards to an apex, one
side facing north-west, the other north-east ; this apex lies
between the river Lycus (the Wolf), and its large tributary
the Kapros (the Boar), which comes in from the south and
passes near the eastern gate : the Lycus is about three miles
to the north of the city.
Laodicea was placed on the apex ; and the great road
from the coast to the inner country passed right through
the middle of it, entering by the " Ephesian Gates " on the
west, and going out by the " Syrian Gates " on the east.
The city was nearly square, with the corners towards the
cardinal points. One side, towards the south-west, was
washed by the small river Asopus. Plates XIV., XV.
^^^m^fi;"'
Laodicea: the City of Compromise 415
The hills rise not more than one hundred feet above the
glen ; but they spring sharply from the low and level
ground in front ; and, when crowned by the well-built
fortifications of a Seleucid city, they must have presented
a striking aspect towards the glen, and constituted an
admirably strong line of defence. Laodicea was a very
strong fortress, planted right on the line of the great road ;
but it had one serious weakness. It was entirely de-
pendent for water-supply (except in so far as wells may
have existed within the walls, of which there is now no
trace) on an aqueduct conducted from springs about six
miles to the south. The aqueduct was under the surface
of the ground, but could hardly remain unknown to a
besieging army or be guarded long against his attack. If
the aqueduct was cut, the city was helpless ; and this
weakness ruined the character of the city as a strong
fortress, and must have prevented the people from ever
feeling secure when threatened with attack. Plate XVI.
Planted on the better of the two entrances from the
west to the Phrygian land, Laodicea might have been
expected to be (like Philadelphia, which commanded the
other) a missionary city charged at first with the task
of spreading Greek civilisation and speech in barbarian
Phrygia, and afterwards undertaking the duty of spreading
Christianity in that country. It had, however, made little
progress in Hellenising Phrygia. As has been stated on
p. 1 19 f., Phrygia was the least Hellenised part in all the
Province; as a whole, it still spoke the native tongue, and
was little affected by Greek manners, in contrast with
Eastern Lydia, which was entirely Greek-speaking and
Hellenised (at least superficially). Why it was that Lao-
dicea had failed and Philadelphia had succeeded in diflTusing
4i6 XXIX. Laodicea: the City of Compromise
the Greek tongue in the districts immediately around, we
have no means of judging. But such was the case.
Laodicea was a knot on the road-system. Not merely
the great eastern highway and central route of the
Roman Empire, as already described, but also the road
from Pergamum and the Hermus Valley to Pisidia and
Pamphylia passed through its gates ; while a road from
Eastern Caria, and at least one from Central and West
Phrygia, met in the city. In such a situation it only
needed peace to become a great commercial and financial
centre. It was, as Strabo says, only a small city before
the Roman time ; but after Rome kept peace in the land,
it grew rapidly. Cicero brought with him in 51 B.C.
orders to be cashed in Laodicea, as the city of banking
and exchange.
It was also a manufacturing centre. There was pro-
duced in the valley a valuable sort of wool, soft in texture
and glossy black in colour, which was widely esteemed.
This wool was woven into garments of several kinds for
home use and export trade. Small and cheap upper
garments, called hhnatia, two kinds of birros (another sort
of upper garment), one of native style and one in imitation
of the manufactures of the Nervii, a tribe in French
Flanders, and also tunics of several kinds, were made in
Laodicea ; and one species of the tunics, called trhnita,
was so famous that the city is styled Trimitaria in the
lists of the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, and in some
other late documents.
It is pointed out elsewhere that this kind of glossy black
wool, as well as the glossy violet-dark wool produced at
Colossae, was probably attained by some system of breed-
ing and crossing.2 The glossy black fleeces have now
Laodicea : the City of Compromise 4 1 7
entirely disappeared ; but they were known in compara-
tively recent times. Pococke in the eighteenth century
saw a great many black sheep ; but Chandler in the early
part of the nineteenth saw only a few black and glossy
fleeces. The present writer has seen some black -fleeced
sheep, but the wool was not distinguished by the gloss
which the ancients praised and prized so much. Certain
systems of breeding animals, and improving them by care-
ful selection and crossing with different stocks, were known
to the native Anatolian population in early times : the
rules were a matter of religious prescription, and guarded
by religious awe, like almost every useful art in that primi-
tive period.^ But the system has now been lost.
Between Laodicea and the " Gate of Phrygia " lay a
famous temple, the home of the Phrygian god Men Karou,
the Carian Men. This was the original god of the valley.
His temple was the centre of society and administration,
intercourse and trade, as well as of religion, — or, rather,
that primitive religion was a system of performing those
duties and purposes in the orderly way that the god ap-
proved and taught — for the valley in which the Lycus and
the Maiander meet. A market was held under the pro-
tection of his sacred name, beside or in his own precinct,
at which the people of the valley met and traded with
strangers from a distance ; and this market continued to
meet weekly in the same place until about fifty years ago,
when it was moved two or three miles north to the new
village calktd Serai-Keui.*
In connection with this temple there grew up a famous
school of medicine. The school seems to have had its seat
at Laodicea, and not at the temple (which was about
thirteen miles west of Laodicea and in the territory of the
41 8 XXIX. Laodicca : the City of Compromise
city Attoudda) ; and the names of the leading physicians
of the school in the time of Augustus are mentioned on
Laodicean coins. These coins bear as type either the
serpent-encircled staff of Asklepios (Fig. lo, p. 174) or the
figure of Zeus (Fig. 35). The Zeus who was worshipped
at Laodicea was the Hellenised form of the old native god.
Men had been the king and father of his people. When the
new seat of Hellenic civilisation and speech was founded
in the valley, the people continued to worship the god
whose power was known to be supreme in the district, but
Fig. 35. — The God of Laodicea.
they imparted to him something of their own character
and identified him with their own god Zeus. Thus in
Sardis and elsewhere the native god became Zeus Lydios,
" the Zeus whom the Lydians worship " ; and the same
impersonation in outward appearance was worshipped at
Laodicea (Fig. 35), though with a different name in place
of Lydios. The Laodicean god was sometimes called
Aseis, perhaps a Semitic word meaning "powerful". If
that be so, it would imply that a body of settlers from
Syria were brought into the new city at its foundation,
Laodicea : the City of Compromise 4 1 9
and that they had imparted an element of their own
character to the god who was worshipped in common by
the citizens generally.
This Laodicean school of physicians followed the teach-
ing "of Herophilos (330-250 B.C.), who, on the principle that
compound diseases require compound medicines, began
that strange system of heterogeneous mixtures, some of
which have only lately been expelled from our own Phar-
macopoeia".^
The only medicine which is expressly quoted as Lao-
dicean seems to be an ointment for strengthening the ears
made from the spice nard ; Galen mentions it as having
been originally prepared only in Laodicea, though by the
second century after Christ it was made in other cities.'
But a medicine for the eyes is also described as Phrygian :
Galen describes it as having the form of a tabloid made
from the Phrygian stone, while Aristotle speaks of it as
Phrygian powder ; the two are probably identical, Aristotle
describes the powder to which the tabloids were reduced
when they were to be applied to the eyes.'^ There can be
no doubt that this Phrygian powder came through Laodicea
into general use among the Greeks. Laodicea was the
one famous medical centre in Phrygia ; and to the Greeks
" Phrygian " often stood in place of " Laodicean " ; thus, for
example, the famous orator of the second century, Pole-
mon of Laodicea was called simply "the Phrygian". The
Phrygian stone was exported after a time to all parts of
the Greek and Roman world ; and as the powder had
now become common, and was prepared in all the medical
centres, Galen does not mention it as being made in any
special place ; but Laodicea was probably the oldest home
of its use, so far as the Greeks knew.
420 XXIX. Laodicea : the City of Compromise
Jews were an important element in the population of
this district in the Grsco-Roman age. Tn 62 B.C. the
Roman governor of Asia refused to permit the contribu-
tions, which were regularly sent by the Asian Jews to
Jerusalem, to go out of the country ; and he seized the
money that had been collected, over twenty pounds weight
of gold at Laodicea and a hundred pounds at Apameia
of Phrygia. Such amounts prove that Laodicea was the
centre of a district in which a large, and Apameia of one
in which a very large, Jewish population dwelt. According
to the calculation of M. Th. Reinach, the gold seized at
Laodifea would amount to 15,000 silver drachms; and as
the annual tax was two drachms, this implies a population
of 7,500 adult Jewish freemen in the district (to which must
be added women and children).
Of the Jews in Laodicea itself no memorial is pre-
served in the few inscriptions that have survived ; but at
Hierapolis they are several times mentioned, and the
Hierapolitan Jews may be taken as occupying a similar
position to the Laodicean. There were Jews in Lao-
dicea, which was such an important centre for financial
transactions (Josephus, Ant., xiv., 10, 20) ; but there is
no evidence whether they were citizens or mere resident
strangers (see chap. xii.). If they were citizens, they
must have been one element in the population planted in
the city by Antiochus. Thus we can detect in the original
Laodicea the following elements, some Greek or Mace-
donian colonists, probably some Syrians and also some
Jews, in addition to the native Phrygian, Carian and Lydian
population of the district.
To these there were added later some new classes of
citizens, introduced by Eumenes IL or by Attalus IL
Laodicea : the City of Compromise 421
When Phrygia was given to Eumenes by the Romans, in
189 B.C., it was soon found to be necessary to strengthen
the loyalty of the Seleucid colonies by introducing into
them bodies of new citizens devoted to the Pergamenian
interests. It is known that a Tribe Attalis was instituted
in Laodicea ; and we must infer that it contained some or
all of those new Pergamenian settlers, who were enrolled
in one or more Tribes. These later colonists were prob-
ably in part Thracian and other mercenaries in the service
of the Pergamenian kings.^ Thus Laodicea and the Lycus
Valley generally had a very mixed population. No better
example could be found of the mixed Graeco- Asiatic cities
described in chapter xi.
The Jews at Hierapolis were organised in trade-guilds,
the purple-dyers, the carpet-makers, and perhaps others.
These guilds were recognised by the city, so that money
could be left to them by will. " The Congregation of the
Jews " was empowered to prosecute persons who had vio-
lated the sanctity of a Jewish tomb, and to receive fines
from them on conviction ; and it had its own public office,
" the Archives of the Jews," in which copies of legal docu-
ments executed by or for Jews were deposited. These
rights seem to imply that there was a body of Jewish
citizens of Hierapolis.^
The Jews of Hierapolis were settled there by one of the
Graeco- Asiatic kings, for their congregation is in one in-
scription called " the Settlement or Katoikia of the Jews,"
and the term Katoikoi was appropriated specially to the
colonists planted by those kings in their new foundations.
Hierapolis seems to have preserved its pre- Hellenic
character as a Lydian city, in which there were no Tribes,
but only the freer grouping by Trade-guilds. The feasts
422 XXIX. Laodicea : the City of Compromise
of Unleavened Bread and of Pentecost are mentioned in
inscriptions ; and by a quaint and characteristic mixture ot
Greek and Jewish customs, money is left to the two Jewish
guilds (naturally, by Jews), the interest of which is to be
distributed annually on those feasts.
Laodicean Jews may be estimated on the analogy of the
Hierapolitan Jews (p. 154).
Laodicea was, of course, a centre of the Imperial religion,
and received the Temple-Wardenship under Commodus, A.D.
1 80- 19 1. Its wide trading connection is attested by many
Fig. 36. — The Alliance of Laodicea and Smyrna.
"alliance-coins," in company with Ephesus, Smyrna, Perga-
mum, most of the neighbouring cities (except Colossae,
which was too humble), and some distant cities like Niko-
media and Perinthus. As a specimen Fig. 36 shows an
agreement between Smyrna and Laodicea : the latter being
represented by its god Zeus, while Smyrna is represented
by Zeus Akraios (p. 260) who sits with sceptre in left hand,
holding out on his right the goddess Victory.
There is no city whose spirit and nature are more difficult
to describe than Laodicea. There are no extremes, and
Laodicea : the City of Compromise 423
hardly any very strongly marked features. But in this
even balance lies its peculiar character. Those were the
qualities that contributed to make it essentially the success-
ful trading city, the city of bankers and finance, which could
adapt itself to the needs and wishes of others, ever pliable
and accommodating, full of the spirit of compromise.
The Lycus Valley, in a larger sense, is a deep cleft
between two lofty mountain ridges. On the south are
Salbakos and Kadmos, both slightly over 8,000 feet above
the sea; on the north is a lower ridge over 5,000 feet in
height. The ridges converge towards the east, and in the
apex lies the ascent to the plateau already described.
Thus the valley is triangular, the base being the opening
on the Ma^ander Valley. Low hills occupy the southern
half of this greater valley ; these hills are drained by the
Kapros and the Asopus ; and Laodicea stands on their
northern apex, about half-way between the two mountain-
ridges. It is the only one of the Seven Cities in which no
relation is discernible between the natural features that
surround it and its part and place in history.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA.
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God :
I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot : I would thou
wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,
I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and
have gotten riches, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou
art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked : I counsel
thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich ; and
white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of
thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes,
that thou mayest see.
The tone of the exordium is one of thoroughness, con-
sistency from the beginning of the creation of God to the
end of all things, a consistency that springs from faithful-
ness and truth. In the letter itself those are the qualities
in which Laodicea is lacking. The Laodicean Church is
neither one thing nor another. It is given to compromise.
It cannot thoroughly reject the temptations and allurements
of the world. And therefore it shall be rejected absolutely
and inexorably by Him whose faithfulness and truth reject
all half-heartedness and compromise.
The characteristics described in the previous chapter are
insufficient to give a clear idea of the special and distinc-
tive character of Laodicea as a city. There is a want of
definiteness and individuality about them. They do not
set before us the picture of a city recognisable in itself and
(424)
The Letter to the Church in Laodicea 425
distinguishable from other cities. But may not this be in
itself a distinction ? Of the Seven Cities Laodicea is the
one which is least determined in character, the one of
which the outline is least clearly and sharply defined in
history. In the special duties imposed on it as the end
and aim of its foundation, to guard a road and gateway,
and to be a missionary of Greek language and culture in
the Phrygian land, it proved unsuccessful. The one respect
in which it stands forth pre-eminent is that it is the adapt-
able city, able to suit itself to the needs of others, because
it has no strongly pronounced character of its own. Such
a nature would be suited for the successful commercial city,
which it was. But such a nature would least commend the
city to St. John. Laodicea must appear to him undecided,
devoid of initiative, pliable, irresolute, and unsatisfactory.
The ordinary historian would probably not condemn
the spirit of Laodicea so strenuously as St. John did.
In the tendency of the Laodiceans towards a policy of
compromise he would probably see a tendency towards
toleration and allowance, which indicated a certain sound
practical sense, and showed that the various constituents
of the population of Laodicea were well mixed and evenly
balanced. He would regard its somewhat featureless char-
acter and its easy regular development as proving that it
was a happy and well-ordered city, in whose constitution
" the elements were kindlier mixed " than in any other
city of Asia. He would consider probably that its success
as a commercial city was the just reward of the strong
common-sense which characterised its people. St. John,
however, was not one of those who regarded a successful
career in trade and money-making as the best proof of
the higher qualities of citizenship. The very characteristics
426 XXX. The Letter to the Church in Laodicea
which made Laodicea a well-ordered, energetic and pushing
centre of trade, seemed to him to evince a coldness of
nature that was fatal to the highest side of human character,
the spirit of self-sacrifice and enthusiasm.
An account which has been given elsewhere ^ of the
development of Christianity in Eumeneia, a city in the
Laodicean circuit where Christian inscriptions are specially
numerous, may be quoted here as an illustration of the
probable character of the whole district of Laodicea. The
evidence proves that Eumeneia was to a large extent a
Christian city in the third century ; and there is consider-
able probability that Eumeneia was the city whose fate is
recorded by Eusebius and Lactantius, two excellent au-
thorities, practically contemporaries of the event. In this
city people and magistrates alike were Christian in the
early years of the fourth century. During the last great
persecution, A.D. 303-313, the population, when threatened,
collected at the Church (which was in itself a defiance of
the Imperial orders). They were surrounded by a ring of
soldiers, and the usual alternative was offered, compliance
or death. In ordinary circumstances, doubtless, some or
even many of them would have lacked the boldness to
choose death ; but it lies in human nature that the general
spirit of a crowd exercises a powerful influence on the in-
dividuals who compose it ; and even those who, taken
singly, might have compromised with their conscience, and
shrunk from a terrible death, accepted it when inspired
with the courage of the whole body. The entire people
was burned with the church; and they died "calling upon
the God over all". Eusebius writes as an epitaph over
their ashes words that read like a memory of the formula
by which the Christian character of the epitaphs on the
The Letter to the Church in Laodicea 427
tombs of their predecessors during the third century has
been recognised.
Those inscriptions, by which we trace the character of
that Christian city about A.D. 240-300, convey the impres-
sion that there was no violent break between Greek and
Christian culture in Eumeneia, as it existed in that period.
There is no sign of bitterness. The monuments place
before us a picture of rich and generous development, of
concession, and of liberality, through which people of diverse
thought were practically reconciled in a single society ;
they exemplify the accommodation of two hostile religions
in a peaceful and orderly city. *This was impossible for
the Christians without some sacrifice of strict principle to
the exigencies of the situation and the demands of the
Imperial government. The spirit of accommodation and
even of compromise must have been strong in Eumeneia.
The result has been told : it was, first, the practically
universal triumph of Christianity in the city, and thereafter
the extermination of the Christian population in a great
massacre. In their death no signs can be detected of the
spirit of compromise which they had showed in practical
matters during their life.
In view of these facts about Eumeneia, and a somewhat
similar history in Apameia, another city of the Laodicean
circuit,^ we may fairly regard the spirit of compromise,
which is stigmatised in the Laodicean letter, as having
been common to the district as a whole and as capable
of showing at need a finer side than is recognised in the
letter.
The Laodicean letter is the only one in which we have
recognised the applicability of the letter to the district or
circuit which was connected with the city. There seemed
428 XXX. The Letter to the Cktirch in Laodicea
always to the Greek mind to be a certain homogeneity of
spirit characterising Phrygia as a whole, which they regarded
with some contempt as an indication of lower intelligence,
contrasted with the strong development of individual char-
acter in the Greek cities. A tendency to compromise in
religion was, indeed, never regarded as characteristic of the
Phrygian spirit, which was considered prone to excess in
religious devotion : the extremest examples of horrible
actions under the stimulus of religion, such as self-mutila-
tion, were associated in the ancient mind with Phrygia.
But the tendency to excess inevitably results in failure to
reach even the mean. The Church blamed the extravagant
Phrygian provocation of martyrdom, because frequently
overstrained human nature failed in the supreme test, and
the would-be martyr, overconfident in his powers, became
a renegade in the hour of trial.
It is characteristic of a city devoted to commercial interests
and the material side of life, that the Church of Laodicea is
entirely self-satisfied. It says, as the city said in A.D. 60,
when it recovered its prosperity after the great earthquake
without any of that help which the Imperial government
was generally ready to bestow, and which the greatest cities
of Asia had always been ready to accept, " / have grown
rich, and have need of nothing". It has never seen its real
condition : it is poor and blind and naked.
There is only one way open to it. It must cease to trust
to itself. It must recognise that it is poor, and seek riches
where the true riches can be found. Its banks and its
wealthy money changers can give it only false money ; but
the Author can sell it "gold refined by fire". He does not
give this gold for nothing : it must be bought with a price,
the price of suffering and truth, fidelity and martyrdom.
The Letter to the Church in Laodicea 429
The Church must recognise that it is naked, and seek to
be clad. Its manufacturers cannot help it with their fine
glossy black and violet garments, which they sell and
export to the whole world. Only white garments, such
as the faithful in Sardis wear, will be of any use to cover
their shame ; and those are sold only by the Author. They
too must be bought with a price.
The Laodicean Church must also learn that it is blind,
but yet not incurably blind. It is suffering from disease,
and needs medical treatment. But the physicians of its
famous medical school can do nothing for it. The tab-
loids which they prescribe, and which are now used all
over the civilised world, to reduce to powder and smear
on the eyes, will be useless for this kind of ophthalmia.
The Laodiceans must buy the tabloid from the Author
himself, at the price of suffering and steadfastness.
The description of the medicine here mentioned is ob-
scured by a mistranslation. It was not an ointment, but
a kollyrium, which had the form of small cylinders com-
pounded of various ingredients, including some mineral
elements, and was used either by simple application or
by reduction to a powder to be smeared on the part.
The term used by St. John is the same that Galen uses to
describe the preparation of the Phrygian stone employed
to strengthen weak eyes.^
The Laodicean Church is the only one which is absolutely
and wholly condemned. Not even a faithful remnant is
left, such as even in Sardis, the dead Church, kept itself
pure and white. No exception is allowed in Laodicea:
advice is given, but there is no appearance that it will be
taken. The weakness of the city will become apparent in
the testing.
430 XXX. The Letter to the Church in Laodicea
In the rest of the letter there is no recognisable allusion
to the character or circumstances of an individual Church.
The conclusion is rather an epilogue to the Seven Letters,
treated as a literary whole, than an integral part of the
Laodicean letter.
CHAPTER XXXI.
EPILOGUE.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten : be zealous therefore, and
repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me.
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne,
as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what he Spirit saith to the churches.
The first sentence in what we take to be an epilogue might
quite well be regarded as part of the Laodicean letter. The
words seem at first to express naturally the reaction from
the sharp censure conveyed in the preceding sentences. But,
as we read on, we become conscious that all reference to
the Laodiceans has ceased, and that the writer is drifting
farther and farther away from them. The final promise
has no apparent relation to their situation and character.
Now, when it is remembered that the Seven Letters were
not real letters, intended to be sent separately to Seven
Churches, but form one literary composition, it becomes
evident that an epilogue to the whole is needed, and that
this is the epilogue. One might hesitate where the Lao-
dicean letter ends and the epilogue to the Seven Letters
begins. The writer passes almost insensibly from the one
to the other. But it seems best to suppose that the epilogue
begins at the point where clear reference to the circumstances
and nature of Laodicea ceases. And when the transition is
(430
432 XXXI. Epilogue
placed here a difficulty is eliminated. After the extremely
sharp condemnation of Laodicea, it seems hardly consistent
to give it the honour which is awarded to the true and
courageous Church of Philadelphia alone among the Seven,
and to rank it among those whom the Author loves. We
can understand why Philadelphia, the true city, the mission-
ary Church, in danger even yet ever enduring, should receive
that honourable mention; but we cannot understand why
Philadelphia and Laodicea should be the only two that
receive it.
But, as part of the epilogue, this first sentence unites all
the Seven Churches and the entire Church of Christ in one
loving warning : the Seven Letters have conveyed much
reproof and chastisement, but the Author reproves and
chastens those whom he loves. The admirable suitability
of the remainder as an epilogue is a matter of expository
interpretation rather than of the historical study at which
the present book has aimed.
In a few words the historical epilogue to this historical
study is summed up.
Among the Seven Churches two only are condemned
absolutely and without hope of pardon : Sardis is dead :
Laodicea is rejected. And among the Seven Cities two
only are at the present day absolutely deserted and unin-
habited, Sardis and Laodicea. Two Churches only are
praised in an unreserved, hearty, and loving way, Smyrna
and Philadelphia. And two cities have enjoyed and earned
the glory of being the champions of Christianity in the
centuries of war that ended in the Turkish conquest, the
last cities to yield long after all others had succumbed
Smyrna and Philadelphia. Other two Churches are treated
with mingled praise and blame, though on the whole the
Epilogue 433
praise outweighs the blame ; for their faith, steadfastness,
works, love, service and patience are heartily praised,
though they have become tainted with the false Nicolaitan
principles. These are Pergamum and Thyatira, both of
which still exist as flourishing towns. One Church alone
shall be moved from its place ; and Ephesus was moved to
a site about three kilometres distant, where it continued
an important city until comparatively recent time, though
now it has sunk to an insignificant village.
NOTES ON CHAPTER I.
' Thi Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 364 ff., 437, etc. ; " Roads and
Travel in New Testament Times," in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the
Bible, vol. v. ; Miss Caroline Skeel, Travel in First Century.
^St. Paul the Traveller, pp. 18, 376, etc.
^Even in Palestine where they were in permanent possession of
part of the country for a considerable time, written memorials of
them are extremely rare ; one occurs in Quart. Statement, Pal. Expl.
Fund, 1901, p. 408, and another is there quoted on p. 409.
* Expositor t 1888, viii., pp. 407-8.
^Expositor, 1888, viii., p. 407.
NOTES ON CHAPTER II.
* Conington's Translation.
2 See the quotations from Philo, Pliny, Appian, Plutarch, Epictetus,
Aristides, etc., given by Friedlander in the opening pages of his Rom.
Sittengeschichte, ii.
'Paton and Hicks' Inscriptions of Cos, p. xxxiii. The statement is
stronger than the present writer would have made ; but Canon Hicks
is one of the highest European authorities on that subject and period.
*Th6 Church in the Roman Empire, p. 361 ff.
NOTES ON CHAPTER III.
'Professor W. Lock criticised the narrowness of Professor Deiss-
mann'ii classification in a paper read at the English Church Congress,
29th September, 1898.
^ Colossians iv. 5, as interpreted in St. Paul the Traveller, p. 149.
'Lightfoot's 5. Clement of Rome, i, p. 359 f . ; Church in the Roman
Empire, p. 368.
*0n the character of the inns see " Roads and Travel in New Tes-
tament Times," in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 393 f.
On messengers and letters, ibid., p. 400 f.
' Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra, p. 40 fF.
(435)
436 Notes on Chapters IV., V., VI.
NOTE ON CHAPTER IV.
* This paragraph sums up in two sentences the history of Anatolian
religion given in an article on " The Religion of Greece and Asia
Minor" in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 109 ff . : the
history begins in utility and life, and ends in deterioration and death.
NOTES ON CHAPTER V.
*The quotations are all taken from a great inscription, recording
the decree of the Commune of Asia instituting the new Augustan
Year, and ordered to be put up in all the leading cities, 9-4 B.C. : it is
published in Mittheilungen Inst. A then, 1889, p. 275 ff.
^ The character and education of the great cities in Asia are de-
Bcribed in chapter xi.
NOTES ON CHAPTER VI.
* The inscription was published first by Wagener, Inscr. Recueillies
en Asie Mineure, No. i : he reads, "first of Daisios" (A for A). The
Smyrna Mouseion, No. 11, reads A. We carefully verified the text
in 1884.
^Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 293. This hieron is prob-
ably the hieron of Apollo in the Milyan Mount, described by Aristides,
Or., xxiii., vol. i., pp. 451, 490. On Pessinus, Histor. Commentary on
Galatians, p. 62.
* *' Religion of Greece and Asia Minor " in Hastings' Dictionary of
the Bible, v., p. 128.
* " Religion of Greece and Asia Minor," p. 121.
"In this description (Journal of Theological Studies, vol. iii., p. 514)
the words "subject to changes dependmg on" is another way (and
probably a better way) of expressing what I have put in the form
"touched or affected by". I intentionally wrote out all that I have
said before looking at Professor Moulton's article, though I resolved
to read it before printing my own words, and, if it seemed needful,
to correct my words from him. I found we were to a great degree
in agreement on the facts, though I am not convinced by his argu-
ment as to a Zoroastrian origin.
' An example in ch. zi., p. 136.
Notes on Chapters VII., VIII. , IX. 437
NOTES ON CHAPTER VII.
* Lightfoot's translation of the extracts from Clement and Ignatius
is usually quoted, especially where it is important to show that the
words are not pressed to suit the views expressed in the present work.
^The leading Church of a Province was usually that of the Roman
capital of the Province ; but this was not the case in Asia, where
Pergamum was still the official capital, but Ephesus was the leading
city and the seat of the leading Church.
'The text of Trail. 3 is not quite certain. Lightfoot is here fol-
lowed.
*A commentary on the expression "slave" in this sentence may
be found below in ch. xiii., p. 159.
' This passage is often strangely misinterpreted (even by Lightfoot)
as implying the opposite : wtz., that St. Paul was the first Apostle
to visit Rome.
NOTES ON CHAPTER VIII.
* Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht (1899), pp. 974 ff., 957, 1047.
» Ibid., p. 575 ff.
» Ibid.f pp. 949 ff., 1046.
On p. 30, 1. 31, refer to Digest, 48, 19, 23.
NOTES ON CHAPTER IX.
' See p. 323.
'Philostr., Vit. Ap. Tyan., iv., lo; vii., zi, 2 ; viii., 7, 27 £
^ Ibid., vi., 41.
* Church in the Roman Empire, p. 200.
*Mr. Anderson Scott in Century Bible, Revelation.
"Ada Theodoti, in Ruinart Acta Sincera, is depreciated on uncon-
vincing grounds in Analccta Bollandiana, xxii., 320 f.
' Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., 506 ff.
^ Ibid., ii., pp. 566-7.
"The inscription was first published in the Revue des Etudes
Anciennes, 1901, p. 276 ; and a correction of one letter A for A was
made in the same journal, 1902, p. 82, by M. Chapot, and accepted
by the present writer, 1902, p. 269.
^^ Three of these certificates have been found in Egypt, and are
published in recent times, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iv., p. 49.
438 Notes on Chapters X, XL, XII.
NOTES ON CHAPTER X.
' In one of the later cases the form is " The Romans and Hellenes
in Asia," a step in Romanising the older idea {Ath. Mitth., 1891, p.
145)-
' Dr. Kenyon, Classical Review, 1893, p. 476, gives the date 41 b.c. ;
Dr. Brandis, Hermes, 1897, P- 509> shows that 33 is more probable,
'St. Paul the Traveller, ch. vi., p. 132 ff.
* Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., pp. 131, 151 f. ; Cibyra, ib., i., p.
365.
* A koinon of Isauria is not proved, but is probable*
•See note 11 to chapter xvii.
' Church in the Roman Empire, p. 192.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XI.
^ A Thracian soldier in 2 Maccabees xii. 35. Thyatira was a Mace-
donian colony. Laodicea and Philadelphia perhaps had Thracian
and Mysian colonists : see Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., pp. 34,
200.
^Impressions of Turkey, p. 256.
' See pp. 146 f., 234 f.
*This idea is illustrated at greater length in two articles on "The
Statesmanship of Paul " in the Contemporary Review, 1901, March and
April.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XII.
* See generally Schiirer in Hastings' Dictionary, v., p. 91 fF.
' On the degree to which the Jews of Asia Minor were Christianised,
compare St. Paul the Traveller, p. 141 ff. ; Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia,
ii., chap. XV.
' Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., pp. 667 ff., 538, 649 fF.
* Ibid., p. 675 f.
* Josephus, Ant. Jud., xiv., 10, 23 (§ 258); Acts xvi. 13.
®The statements made in the recognised authorities are different;
but we know that Jews were citizens in the cities founded (or re-
founded) by Seleucus I. and in the only foundation by Antiochus II.
of whose principles any record is preserved (Josephus, Ant. fud., xii.,
3, 2, § 125 f. ; Apion, ii., 4), and this may confidently be regarded as
proving the ordinary Seleucid policy. It is a mistake to take the
examples quoted by Josephus, c. Apion, ii., 4, as a complete list, and
infer that the Jews had the citizenship only in Alexandria, Antioch,
Notes on Chapters XI L^ XIII. 439
and the Ionian cities. Willrich differs, Beitr. z. alt. Gesch., iii., 397,
Juden u. Gr., 126 ff. ; but he seems not to have thought of the case in
its real nature.
' Various other terms were employed in different cities.
* /**XP' ^^^ avTutv Tj <Pv\f) TTfv irpoa-Tjyopiav €t;^e " MaKtiovts" Joseph.,
Apion, i'u, 4, giving definition and precision to the words oi Bell. Jud.,
ii., 18, 7 (§ 488), xP'?/*a»'«'Cf»'' fiTfTpf^av MaKf86vas. At Cyzicus the
Roman citizens seem to have been enrolled in the two tribes Sebas-
teis and loulieis: Athen. Mitth., 1901, p. 125 ff. In strict law the as-
sumption of any other citizenship was fatal to the Roman citizenship
(Mommsen, St. R., iii., 47 ff. ; Cicero, Balb., xii., 30 ; Athen. Mitth., igoa,
p. 113); but under the Empire it became usual to admit resident
Romans in many Eastern cities as avixnoXirevofifvoi.
'Josephus, Ant. Jud., xii., 3, 2 (§ 126), a^iovvTmp, el o-vyyfvfjs (i<r\v
avTo7s 'lovbaloi, (re^etr^at rovs Ibiovs avrav dtovs'. Compare xvi., 2, 5
(§ 59).
^° Contemporary Review^ March, igoi, in a paper on "The States-
manship of Paul ".
"One might quote from modern New Testament scholars flatly
contradictory statements. They assume that Paul's case might be
a solitary one in Tarsus. But such a view will not bear scrutiny.
Professor Schiirer is agreed on this, and quotes with approval the
words used by the present writer in Expositor (Hastings' Dictionary,
v., p. 105).
^^ Gesch. des Jud. Volkes, etc., ii., p. 541 f. I quote the second
edition, not possessing nor having access to the third.
"Josephus, Antiq.Jud., xii., 3, 2, § 125 f. ; xvi., 2, 5, § 59.
"See the inscription, Lebas-Waddington, i^6a; Michel, 496;
Dittenberger, 253.
*" Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., pp. 538, 667 fF.
" St. Paul the Trav., pp. 264, 287.
""Ibid., p. 32. It is strange that this translation, which the
language of Asia Minor inscriptions makes certain, has not suggested
itself to the commentators and seems still ignored by them.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XIII.
* White colour, pp. 305, 386 : Stephanephoroi^ Cities and Bishoprics
of Phrygia, i., p. 55.
' Cisia Mystica, Fig. 24, p. 287.
•The commentators seem to assume that the term "debtor "in
Rom. i. 14 has lost all its strict force, and that St. Paul is merely
440 Notes on Chapters XIII.^ XIV,
expressing his strong sense of duty as a Christian to try to convert
the Pagan world. But it is a false and ruinous procedure to whittle
away the meaning in that way. Terms must be taken in their proper
sense. No man can be made a debtor, except by receiving what he
is bound to repay. Unless St. Paul had meant what lies in the word
"debtor," he would not have used the term, but expressed himself
otherwise. To illustrate Rom. i. 14, compare Rom. xv. 27, where St.
Paul's own Churches are said to be the debtors of the poor Christians
of Jerusalem, having received much from them and being therefore
bound to repay, even by money.
* I can feel no doubt that Lightfoot and Zahn are right in accept-
ing this text. Hilgenfeld prefers the majority of MSS., which insert
ovK before anh a-iyrjs TrpoeXOmv, a reading which misses all that is most
characteristic of Ignatius, and can be preferred only by one who is
not able " to hearken to the Silence " of Ignatius.
'The term mystery occurs, Mark iv. 11; Matthew xiii. 11; Luke
viii. 10; four times in Revelation, and twenty-one times in the
Pauline Epistles. My friend Professor A. Souter points out to me that
there is an admirable excursus on nvcrrripwv in the Dean of West-
minster's Bphesians (Lond., 1903 ; and ed., 1904).
NOTES ON CHAPTER XIV.
* Laodicea was injured by an earthquake in a.d. 60, as Tacitu3,
Annals, xiv., 27, says. Eusebius dates the earthquake after the fire
of Rome, a.d. 64.
2 "Roads and Travel in New Testament Times," in Dr. Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 383 ff.
^Loc. cit., p. 389.
*0n the title of Magnesia see the present writer's Cities and Bish,
of Phrygia, ii., p. 429 (where the mention of Philadelphia in a foot-
note should be deleted, as he has long recognised). At a later
time, towards a.d. 200, both Thyatira and Philadelphia grew much
wealthier, and were recognised by imperial favour as of higher im-
portance.
^ " Roads and Travel in New Testament Times," etc., p. 382 £
* Hastings' Dictionary, iv., p. 18.
' After this was first printed, the writer saw Professor Harnack's
article in the Berlin Akad. Sitzungsberichte, 1901, p. 810 ff., which goes
as far as existing records permit in preparing for the answering of
the question.
Notes on Chapters XIV., XV. 441
' In face of these frequently quoted facts, it is quite extraordinary
how modern scholars continue to repeat that Philippi could not style
itself the " first city " of its district (Acts xvi. 12), because that rank and
title belonged to Amphipolis. Such an argument is a mere modernism,
and possesses no meaning or validity when applied to the first cen-
tury. Philippi as a Roman Colonia could not but be in a sense, and
claim to be in every sense, "first in the district". Yet this striking
piece of local truth is obscured by writer after writer, repeating that
tralaticious error, which appears even in the otherwise excellent
article on Philippi in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible,
NOTES ON CHAPTER XV.
»The results of the article on " Roads and Travel in New Testa-
ment Times," published in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, vol.
v., pp. 375-403, are assumed throughout.
* " Roads and Travel in New Testament Times," p. 381 f.
*The Post Road of the first century may also be called the Over-
land Route : its course to the Eastern Provinces was by Brundisium,
Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, Neapolis (for Philippi), Troas, Perga-
mum, Philadelphia, Akmonia, Julia-Ipsos, Philomelion, to Tarsus,
Syrian Antioch, Caesareia of Palestine, and Alexandria. The Central
Route went by Brundisium, Corinth, Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralleis,
Laodicea, Apameia, Pisidian Antioch (or Julia-Ipsos and Philo-
melion), Iconium to Tarsus, Syrian Antioch, etc. See " Roads and
Travel in New Testament Times," pp. 383-7.
*Lydia had entirely lost its own tongue, and spoke only Greek, as
Strabo mentions about a.d. 20.
"Aristides, Or., xxii., 475 (i., p. 441), mentions that the word Asia
was sometimes used in this sense, including the coast-valleys and
part of Phrygia along the great road from Laodicea to Apameia :
'AfTiav TT]v /if'xP' Maidvdpov nijyiou. He adds that Asia was also used
to indicate the entire Province or the entire continent; and he im-
plies that there were only those three geographical meanings of the
term. He does not admit that Asia was ever used to indicate Lydia
and the coast lands without Phrygia (as Professor Blass maintains
that it was, in his note on Acts xvi. 8).
8 " Roads and Travel in New Testament Times," pp. 384, 389.
' Ibid., p. 384.
8 Unfortunately, the system of circuits is not described in the
article on " Roads and Travel in New Testament Times," mentioned
442 Notes on Chapters XV., XVI., XVII,
above ; the whole subject became clear as a result of the studies
undertaken for that article, but not in time to be incorporated in it
* Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., pp. 510 f., 715,
^"Ibid.
"/6t<;., p. 556.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XVI.
* A fuller statement is given in the Expositor, Feb., 1901, p. X03 ff.
* Expositor, loc, cit,
NOTES ON CHAPTER XVII.
* Authorities may be found quoted in the account of Diana of the
Ephesians, and of the history of Ephesus, in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary.
'E, Curtius, Beitrdge zur Geschichte und Topographic Kkinasiens,
Berlin.
^Historical Geography of Asia Minor, p, no,
* See Panaghia Capouli ou Maison de la S. Vierge (Oudin, Paris, 1896),
and Gabrielovich, Ephise ou Jerusalem Tombeau de la S. Vierge (Oudin,
Paris, 1897).
■* This subject is treated more fully in an article on the " Religion
of Greece and Asia Minor " published in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary
of the Bible, vol. v., especially pp. 116 f., 122 f.
'The same delight was characteristic of Pelasgian religion gener-
ally, as is maintained in the article quoted in the preceding note.
' Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, i., p, 723a.
8 Two hours is mentioned according to the ancient rule of counting,
that anything above one is called roundly two : see Hastings' Dic-
tionary of the Bible, v., p. 474. On the street. Church in the Roman
Empire, p. 153.
" Hastings' Dictionary, v., p. 399.
*» Asclepios Soter at Dionysopolis (a Pergamenian foundation in
Phrygia), Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 146, No. 35 ; at
Acmonia, see note 11 to this chapter. Dionysos Kathegemon at
Acmonia, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., p. 644, No. 546, where
also Teos, Thyatira, Baris, and Herakleia of Caria, are quoted. On
Dionysos as apxqyos tov yivovs of the Attalid kings see Prott in Mit-
theilungen Inst, Athen., 1902, p. 162.
^^ Revue des Etudes Anciennes, 1901, p. 273 f., and on the date, ibid.^
Z902, p. 269. See below, p. 393.
" Philostratus, Vit. ApolL, viii., 7, 38.
Notes on Chapters XVII., XVIII., XIX. 443
•'See Canon Hicks, Greek Inscriptions of the British Museum, iii.,
p. 68 f., for a full review of the evidence. Our conclusions differ in
some respects.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XYHI.
* It is printed by Parthey as Appendix I. to his edition of Hierocles
and the lists of Byzantine bishoprics.
* Ignat. Eph. § 9 : see Expositor, Feb., 1904, p. 84.
' (KfWev, from yonder, referring to some place unmentioned which
was much in his own mind, and which would naturally spring to the
mind of the Ephesian readers. There was only one place which the
Ephesians would naturally connect with Ignatius, when he mentioned
no name ; and that was Syrian Antioch : cp. rav tKei Tncrrmv at the
end of the letter (Syria is there named in the context). Lightfoot
suggests that Ignatius meant "yonder" as Philadelphia; but there
was no reason why such a reference should have been intelligible to
the readers in Ephesus.
* On this fact, and the reason for it lying in the position of women
and the consequent want of any true home education, see Histor.
Comm. on Epistle to Galations, p. 388.
"On the subject see Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, vol. v., p. 113.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XIX.
* In British Monthly^ 1901, Dec, p. 17. See art. "Smyrna" in
Hastings' Dictionary, iv., p. 553, where the history is briefly de-
scribed, with references to the ancient authorities.
"Aristides describes Smyrna in Orations, xv., xx.-xxii. and xli.
Philostratus, Vit. Apoll. Tyan., iv., 7 f. ; viii., 24.
"Aristides, Or., xx., 457 (i., p. 425, Dindorf); xv., 404 (i., p. 374);
xli., 294 (i., p. 766) ; Brilliance, pp. 425 and 380.
* Id., XV., 405 (i., p. 375, Dindorf).
»W., xxi., 471 (i., p. 437): cp. i., p. 443.
* Private communication from M. Fontrier. The present writer
had thought previously that this temple was on the western hill (see
article in Hastings' Dictionary), in which case the line of the street
would be the same in its east and middle portion and would fulfil
the conditions nearly as well.
' ofiovota araatd^ova-a, Vit. Apoll., iv., 8. Aristides XV., 410 (i., p.
380) ; XX., 456 (i., p. 425) : compare the description in i., p. 374, of the
anification of all the parts of the city.
*See an article on "The Religion of Greece and Asia Minor" in
Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 139 (7).
444 ^otes on Chapters XX., XXL, XXII.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XX.
* Anything above 300 is called roundly 400, according to the prin-
ciple mentioned in note 8 to chapter xvii. The actual number was
less than 320.
"The inscription is published in the Mittheilungen des deutschen
Instituts zu Athen, vii., p. 179.
^CIG 3148, belonging to the latter part of the reign of Hadrian.
* In chapter xii. above : see also the Expository Jan., 1902, p. 22 f.,
and Feb., i 02, p. 92 f. It is extremely improbable that even the
most degraded Jews (with the rarest exceptions) had ever forsworn
their religion openly and professedly. Even the worst among them
were full of the pride of race and the consciousness of living on a
higher plane than the ordinary pagans. The present writer wrongly
assumed as certain (in Hastings* Dictionary of the Bible, iv., p. 555fl)
that the Jews of Smyrna were all resident strangers. The point is
uncertain ; but the statement on p. 272, 1. 25 f., is more probable.
^ See the article on " Days, Hours and Dates " in Dr. Hastings'
Dictionary 0/ the Bible, v., p. 478.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXI.
* The principal references to ancient literature may be found in
the sketch of the history of Pergamum in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary.
2 The best account of the coins of the Commune is still to be found
in Finder's old treatise iib. d. Cistophoren, etc.
"" Religion of Greece and Asia Minor" in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary
of the Bible, v., pp. 114-8.
* See von Prott on Dionysos Kathegemon in Mittheilungen Inst.
A then, 1902, p. 162.
'See Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. no ff., where the view
is worked out in detail that the oldest Pelasgian or early Mycen£ean
form of the religion of the Greek lands was kindred in type to the
Anatolian ; and that, as Hellenic thought was developed, so religion
in Greece was Hellenised.
® Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v., p. 115.
' Church in the Roman Empire, p. 324.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXII.
^St. Paul the Traveller, p. 230 f.
'Some facts and references are given in Cities and Bishoprics of
Phrygia, i., p. 76 f.
^ Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Notes on Chapters XXI I. to XXVI. 445
*The Rev. F. E. Toyne, Bournemouth.
•There is some doubt whether the date was 117 or 129.
•Kai ravra re ovTas fireirpanTO Koi t6 frvvdrjfia iraprjv dpaKoXovv, (py<f
ami 8fi$avTos OTi iroX\S}U tveica irporjyayes fls /xeaov if ^av(ir]p.(v iv Tois
Xoyotf , Kai yivowTO uvttjkooi tuv KptiTTOviov ol TeXewraroi. Ldlta, p. 6g I.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXIII.
*The ancient authorities are quoted more fully in Dr. Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible, iv., p. 757 ff.
''See note 3 on chapter xv.
*The expression Trjs ^(^aarrelov koi Tvpifivrjov iravrjyvptas is used
(an excellent parallel to rfjv ^pvylav koL TaXaTiKrju xa>pav). On the
other hand riov 2f jUaaroiu Tvpipvrjap dyavav is used without Kai.
*Josephus, Ant. Jud., xii., 33, § iig. See pp. 131 ff., 146 ff.
'Schiirer die Prophetin Isabel in Thyatira in Abhandl. Weizsdcker
gewidmet 1892. See p. 337.
^Thyatira surrendered to the Romans in 190 B.C. It was occupied
by Aristonicus during his revolt in 133-2.
'jD« rebus Thyatirenorum (Paris, 1893), p. 93.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXIV.
*0n charities in the early Church, see Cities and Bishoprics of
Phrygia, ii., p. 546.
* It seems probable, as stated in the article on the country Lydia
in Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, that Lydia was only applied
to her as a secondary name or epithet "the Lydian," and that either
Syntyche or Euodia, Phil. iv. 2, was her primary name : the second-
ary name was in this case (as often) the commonly used and familiar
appellation like Priscilla for Prisca, Silas for Silvanus, ApoUos for
Apollonius.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXV.
* References to ancient authorities in Hastings' Dictionary, iv.,
art. " Sardis ".
* I have not seen the east face from a near point.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXVI.
*The A. V. must at this point be considered truer to the spirit of
the passage than the R. V.
*This peculiar people is described in Impressions of Turkey, p. 268:
they have retained strange customs, some strongly pagan in character.
446 Notes on Chapters XXVI L, XXIX., XXX.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXVII.
* Hastings' Dictionary, art. " Philadelphia **,
'Seep. 395.
'On this class of monuments see Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia^
i., ch. iv.
* Roads and Travel in New Testament Times, in Hastings' Dictionary,
v., p. 384 f-
'Visitors by rail or road get only this too close view: Plate XII.
is taken from farther out in the plain, where the hill is seen to stand
clear from Mount Tmolus.
'Mr. Head in his Catalogue of Lydia places these coins earlier (in
the second or first century B.C.); but I cannot believe that such coins
as those of Hermippus Archiereus are earlier than Augustus.
' A priest of Germanicus is mentioned on coins of Claudius, and
the priesthood implies a temple. This foundation undoubtedly be-
longs to 17-19 A.D., when Germanicus administered the East, and
conveyed the Imperial charity to Philadelphia. He died in ig«
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXIX.
*The locality is described fully in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia,
L, ch. i. and ii. The following sentence in our text is quoted from
p. 2.
^ Impressions of Turkey, p. 272 f. ; compare Dr. Hastings' Dtcfiowary,
v., p. 117-
* Dr. Hastings' Dictionary, v., p. 109 ff.
* Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 167 f.
''Ibid., i., p. 52 (quoted in part from Dr. Greenhill in Smith's Diet.
Gr. Rom. Biography.
* Galen, De sanitate tuenda, vi., 12 (Kiihn, vol. vi., p. 439).
' Galen, ibid. The tabloids, Kollyria, according to Stephanus,
were, strictly speaking, cylindrical in shape; they were dry prepara-
tions, suited to reduce to powder. See also p. 429.
^Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 34. The tribe Attalis, in
Joxirnal of Hell. Studies, 1897, p. 408.
•On the Jews of Hierapolis see Expositor, Feb., 1902, p. 95 ff.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XXX.
» Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., 50a H
*Ibtd., p. 509 f.
» See note 7 to chapter xxix.
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